<...Senate Majority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) and House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) complained about “the lack of television coverage of press events featuring elected leaders of the Democratic Party."

Ah, that's the catch. Daschle wasn't elected to his leadership post, he was handed it by Jeffords' defection to "restore balance" (as Jeffords put it).

You know, when there was a Democratic president, and the Democrats controlled both houses, I somehow missed Democrats loudly offering to switch parties to "restore balance" and "avoid a rubber stamp Congress." Maybe it just didn't make the news.