Daschle and 40 Senate colleagues were returning from New York City where they saw for the first time the devastation caused by terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. Through tears of disbelief, Daschle said, he and the others stared at hundreds of posters and photographs of lost loved ones posted near the tangled steel and smoky rubble of the crumbled towers - near a place they now call Ground Zero. You can't put it into words, the magnitude of the loss. My life has become one fast blur - faster than this train is going. It seems to be a metaphor for how my life is going.
Nights turn into days and into nights again.
In less than three hours, he'd be seated in the House of Representatives, listening to President George W. Bush speak to a joint session of Congress and the American people about the tragedy and the nation's plans to fight back. Then, with Republican Sen. Trent Lott, he'd deliver a message on behalf of Congress. But Daschle doesn't want to shake the memory of the devastation he witnessed or the pictures he saw. When you see those faces, it brings it all to reality. It is an amazing experience to try to comprehend the magnitude of the thousands of smiling faces.