Former St. Paul Mayor Norm Coleman will most likely be the new Republican senator from Minnesota after defeating the Democratic candidate, former Vice President Walter Mondale. Tragically, Senator Paul Wellstone (D) was not a choice for Minnesotans after his untimely death in a plane crash almost two weeks ago. But at a memorial service for the late senator on Oct. 29, his family and supporters turned what should have been a solemn service into a political rally. This was disgusting and tasteless.
With 57 percent of precincts reporting, Coleman led Mondale by 3 percentage points -- over 28,000 votes. Exit polls are currently unavailable at the time this column is published due to problems with Voter News Service (VNS), a vote-counting group that usually releases surveys of voter attitudes. Therefore it is not known how the Wellstone memorial service may have affected the election. But the antics of the Democrats at the Wellstone memorial certainly created negative publicity that the party did not need in such a close election.
Wellstone was a maverick liberal who was seeking his third term in the Senate. The former political science professor was popular on both sides of the aisle despite his controversial votes. Wellstone was the only senator in a close election race who voted against the resolution empowering President George W. Bush to use force in Iraq ("An unapologetic liberal," The Washington Post, Oct. 26).
The crassness of the Wellstone family became apparent when they announced that they did not want Vice President Dick Cheney to come to the service as a representative of the White House. The White House instead sent Tommy G. Thompson, Secretary of Health and Human Services, and Nicholas E. Calio, the White House Congressional Liaison. A Democratic official involved in the service said that the Wellstone family did not want to complicate the event by the added security, the possibility of protestors and the other logistical challenges that would accompany an appearance by the vice president ("Memorial for Wellstone assumes spirit of rally," The New York Times, Oct. 30).
But according to the New York Times, the Democrats were also reluctant to invite Cheney because he had been active in Coleman's campaign against Wellstone.
Although the Wellstone family and supporters may not have had great love for Cheney, not to allow him to attend the service was appalling. Cheney was not coming because he agreed with Wellstone's political views. Very few agreed with Wellstone to start with, and certainly not the conservative Cheney. But to deny someone the opportunity to attend a memorial service because of politics shows that the Wellstone family did not have their priorities straight.
The memorial -- which was attended by 20,000 people -- should have been an opportunity to remember the inspiring life of Wellstone. It should not, however, have been a campaign rally for the Democratic Party. One of the most shameful events of the evening occurred when Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott was booed as he entered Williams Arena at the University of Minnesota, where the event was held ("Tones of Wellstone memorial generates anger," CNN.com, Oct. 30).
Lott was nice enough to travel to Minnesota to pay his respects to his former colleague, and instead of being appreciated, he was booed. According to CNN.com, the crowd cheered loudly for Mondale, the presumed replacement for Wellstone on the ballot who entered the Senate race the next day.
In fact, the memorial service seemed almost to be a rally for Mondale. Richard Kahn, a former student of Wellstone from his days at Carleton College, said, "Can you not hear your friend calling you, one last time, one step forward on his behalf to keep his legacy alive and help us win this election for Paul Wellstone." According to the New York Times report, as Kahn spoke a picture of Mondale, Wellstone's successor on the ballot, appeared on the Jumbotron to a standing ovation.
Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura, who was also booed when he entered and later walked out of the service in disgust, told CNN.com that the Democrats "should hang their heads in shame." He also added, "I feel used. I feel violated and duped over the fact that that turned into nothing more than a political rally." In response, he named an independent -- and not a Democrat -- as the interim senator during the lame-duck congressional session.
Everyone was aware that the elections this year would be very close. But that was not an excuse to dishonor and cheapen the memory of Wellstone by letting politics cloud good judgment. There is a time and a place for politics. That time and place was not at the Wellstone memorial. The people of Minnesota lost a principled senator, and the Democrats lost one of the last true liberals. But more importantly, those who knew Wellstone lost a good man. This is what should have been remembered at the memorial.
It is not a tragedy that Coleman is the new senator of Minnesota. The only tragedy is that Wellstone, his wife, daughter, three staff members and the two pilots were killed in the plane crash. Unfortunately the Wellstone family and its supporters were unable to make this differentiation.
(Harris Freier's column usually appears Fridays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at hfreier@
cavalierdaily.com.)
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