“Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle yesterday urged President Bush to take a tougher stance with Saudi Arabia, whom he accused of insufficiently fighting terrorism, and said Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat must be replaced,” The Washington Times reports.

The South Dakota Democrat told ‘Fox News Sunday’ he was not convinced the Saudi government was doing everything it could to fight terrorism. Most of the September 11 hijackers were Saudi citizens.

‘I think we can get a lot more help from the Saudis in so many ways,’ Mr. Daschle said. ‘They could be a lot more overt in their support and their willingness to work with us. They could help us a lot more in the subsurface efforts that are under way. We’re not getting that kind of help, and I’m disappointed.’

Well, Daschle’s endlessly “disappointed” at most things, but in this particular instance, he happens to have every reason to feel the way he does. And I suspect the majority of Americans know it, too.

Talk about irony: If Bush isn’t careful, he’s going to find himself on the wrong side of the War on Terror.

On the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Mr. Daschle said the Palestinian movement should replace Mr. Arafat to bolster the chances of bringing about peace in the Middle East. ‘Sooner or later it has to happen,’ he said. ‘There has to be a regime change there. It has to happen from within the Palestinian movement. I don’t think we can force it ourselves, but it’s necessary in order to reach some peaceful arrangement.’

Uh, Dubya? Colin? You there…?

‘Cause at times it looks like it’s startin’ to get away from you, boys…

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