Reply #34: Who's "They"?

[ProudDad]

"To this day, there are still a lot of people, including Democrats, who've bought the right wing line on the Wellstone Memorial.

Specifically, that it was a cynical, premeditated political event that included endless booing of Republican politicians who came to pay their respects to their fallen colleague. I wrote a pretty detailed account of the Wellstone Memorial in my book Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, and nothing could be further from the truth. I did write that "reasonable people of good will were genuinely offended." The memorial was raucous and a couple of speakers said some things that were inappropriate - basically, let's win this (upcoming Senate) election for Paul.

There were also honest Republicans of good will, including Jim Ramstad - the Congressman from the Minneapolis suburban district I grew up in - who acted like human beings and cut the speakers who offended (Rick Kahn and, to a lesser degree, Mark Wellstone) a little slack because they understood that Rick had lost six very close friends and Mark had lost his father, mother, and sister.

The chapter was mainly about how cynically Republicans used the memorial politically as they complained that the Democrats had used it politically. And how the mainstream media, many of whom had neither attended the memorial nor seen it on TV, bought into the Republican spin. "


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/al-franken/reflections-on-the-wellst_b_15459.html

"In the midst of a fierce political battle, Wellstone was struck down. Apolitical mourning would have been shrewder politically, but that might not have been Wellstone’s style. One could easily envision Wellstone telling his grieving friends, “don’t mourn, organize.” Reminiscent of this Wellstone, Rick Kahn’s speech at the Memorial Service was strongly confrontational. So were the speeches of Wellstone’s sons, David and Mark. Fueled by intense grief, the tributes were doubtless intended to honor a man who often disparaged traditional political wisdom.

A Wellstonian ending would have been a narrow Mondale victory despite the political mishaps of the Memorial. But instead of a tale of tragedy and triumph, Wellstone’s followers suffered defeat amidst death. After the election, Walter Mondale said that your principles are tested more in defeat than in victory. For the followers of Paul Wellstone, the days and years of testing lie ahead."

http://www.collegenews.org/x2886.xml