Timing Entwined War Vote, Electio

Do you mean that this administration would rush crucial decisions for political gain?

-"I'm shocked and appalled"
B. Simpson

By Ronald Brownstein and Emma Vaughn, Times Staff Writers

WASHINGTON — Tom Daschle, the former Democratic senator from South Dakota, remembers the exchange vividly.

The time was September 2002. The place was the White House, at a meeting in which President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney pressed congressional leaders for a quick vote on a resolution authorizing military action against Iraq.