Former Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle (S.D.) is asking Sen. John Kerry’s (D-Mass.) supporters to help out his fellow South Dakotan, Sen. Tim Johnson (D), who has been on the political sidelines since suffering a stroke in December. [IMGCAP(1)]

“One vote,” Daschle penned in an e-mail set for distribution today. “I know what a difference one vote can make,” he tells the 3 million-plus members of Kerry’s list. “In 2001, one courageous vote from a man of conviction, [former] Sen. Jim Jeffords (I-Vt.), gave Democrats control of the Senate and made me Majority Leader.”

Daschle said that upon Johnson’s return to the Senate, Democrats will see even more clearly how much his one vote matters. Daschle, the Senator whom Republicans worked hardest to defeat in 2004, said the GOP will not give Johnson, despite his ongoing recovery, a “free ride” next year.

Hot Enough for You? Nine people were treated at the Hart Senate Office Building for heat exhaustion Tuesday afternoon, temporarily forcing the shutdown of Constitution Avenue. The Office of the Attending Physician responded, choosing to treat six people on site and sending the others to the hospital for further treatment, according to Capitol Police Sgt. Kimberly Schneider. All nine people were visitors to the building.

“They just came in from outside,” Schneider said.

The temperature in Washington, D.C., reached 93 degrees Tuesday, with humidity of about 44 percent, according to the National Weather Service.

Calves Pick on an Old Bull. Democrats have controlled Capitol Hill for barely six months and already the party’s new heavy-hitters are taking aim at some of its most venerable Members.

MoveOn.org was set to begin airing a radio ad today chastising Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) for doing everything in his power to prevent Congress from raising the Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards.

Requiring automakers to build highly fuel-efficient cars and trucks has long been anathema in Detroit and with the Big Three automakers floundering, the House Energy and Commerce chairman is as determined as ever to stop legislation that he thinks would crush Michigan’s economy.

Titled “Dingellsaurus,” MoveOn’s 60-second spot parodies a father reading a dinosaur book to his son. The son gets to “Dingellsaurus” and asks what it is.

“Someone who’s been in Congress so long, he forgets about the people who sent him there,” the father answers.

— Nicole Duran and Elizabeth Brotherton