WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When former U.S. President Bill Clinton talks, Democrats still listen -- and that is one reason they are stepping up the defense of Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle against a drumbeat of Republican attacks.

Clinton scolded Democrats after the 2002 elections for failing to adequately respond to the demonization of Daschle that helped Republicans win back control of the Senate.

With the South Dakotan up for re-election next year in a state that went heavily for President Bush in 2000, Democrats vow to return political fire. Control not just of Daschle's seat but the entire Congress and the White House will be at stake in 2004.

"Republicans are trying to put devil horns on Tom Daschle, not only to try to defeat him in South Dakota but to use him as a proxy to attack the entire Senate Democratic caucus," a top party aide said.

Sen. Jon Corzine of New Jersey, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, recently took the Senate floor to blast a South Dakota group whose stated goal was to end Daschle's political career. Democrats also filed a federal complaint about television ads in South Dakota that attacked Daschle for opposing Bush's tax cuts.

"We've had a belly full of these attacks, and we're going to fight back and fight back aggressively," said Sen. Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat.

An NBC-Wall Street Journal poll of 1,000 adults this month found just 17 percent with a positive view of Daschle. Nearly a third saw him negatively with the rest neutral or not sure.

Democrats plan to appear more often on radio and TV talk shows to counter conservative voices. They intend to enlist help from groups ranging from farmers to police officers. Ex-party staffers are moving to form groups to air issue ads.

Daschle has blamed Bush for the ailing economy, accused him of shortchanging domestic policy and ripped his pre-Iraq war diplomacy. Republicans have hammered Daschle as an obstructionist, and even questioned his patriotism.

"We're stepping up to protect Tom Daschle and anyone else who stands up to George W. Bush," a party aide said.

The tough talk is in sharp contrast to the silence of the previous few years when Republicans denounced Daschle as the top Democrat blocking much of Bush's legislative agenda.

Newspaper ads in South Dakota even accused Daschle of helping keep Iraq's Saddam Hussein in power by preventing oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

"What was done to Tom Daschle was unconscionable, but our refusal to stand up and defend him in a disciplined way was worse," Clinton said shortly after the 2002 vote.

Republicans seem unfazed by Democratic vows to protect their Senate leader. "We see Daschle as definitely vulnerable," Sen. George Allen of Virginia, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said with a smile.

Allen noted a recent Republican poll showed Daschle running about even in South Dakota with a potential 2004 challenger, former U.S. Rep. John Thune.

Bill Richardson, chairman of the political science department at the University of South Dakota, says Daschle is more popular back home than Republicans suggest, but notes Bush is popular, too.