Posted on 10/31/2002 5:12:11 AM PST by NotJustAnotherPrettyFace
Oct 29, 2002 1:28 pm US/Central (CBS) (Minneapolis, MN) Many senators, former President Clinton and former Vice President Gore will attend the memorial service for Sen. Paul Wellstone Tuesday evening. But Wellstone's sons reportedly disinvited Vice President Dick Cheney, who planned to represent the Bush administration at the event.
A White House spokesman told the Star Tribune of Minneapolis the Wellstones asked Cheney not to attend, though he didn't provide a specific reason. According to a broadcast report, the family was upset with campaign activities by state and national Republicans on Monday.
Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, former governor of Wisconsin, will represent the Bush administration at the event, in Williams Arena on the University of Minnesota campus.
The 6:30 p.m. service will honor Wellstone, 58; his wife, Sheila, also 58; their daughter, Marcia Wellstone Markuson, 33; and campaign aides Will McLaughlin, 23, Tom Lapic, 59, and Mary McEvoy, 49. Pilots Richard Conry, 55, and Michael Guess, 30, also died in Friday's plane crash near Eveleth.
Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and several others are expected to speak.
"I'm just going to talk about Paul Wellstone's legacy, what he meant to us as a party, but also as a Senator," Harkin said in Iowa Monday. "Paul Wellstone was sort of a mirror for all of us to look into and see what we believed in, what we stood for and how much we were willing to fight for what we believe in."
Wellstone's campaign bus will be parked outside the arena and be used as a place for people to present flowers and other tributes. Several TV stations planned to broadcast the event and a Twin Cities technology company planned an Internet feed.
The arena, where the Minnesota basketball teams play, will seat about 15,000. A video feed will be projected in the adjacent Sports Pavilion building, with seating for another 5,000.
Security and traffic both will be heavy. Campus police were preparing for crowds to begin arriving around 4 p.m. and to begin leaving somewhere between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m.
Wellstone family members and close friends attended a private funeral for Paul and Sheila Wellstone at a Minneapolis synagogue on Monday. Their bodies were buried in Lakewood Cemetery after the service.
More than 700 students, teachers and administrators of White Bear Lake High School, where Marcia Wellstone Markuson taught, paid tribute to her at a service Monday.
Wellstone's death threw the battle for control of the Senate into question with the Nov. 5 election nearly a week away. The race had been tight between former St. Paul Mayor Norm Coleman and Wellstone and was a top target of Republicans trying to regain control of the chamber.
Former Vice President Walter Mondale has gotten a crucial vote of confidence from the Wellstone as Democrats scramble to replace the fallen senator on the Nov. 5 ballot.
"Mr. Mondale is the choice of the Wellstone family," said Mike Erlandson, chairman of the state's Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. Erlandson said Wellstone's son personally asked Mondale on Saturday to take over the race.
A group of up to 875 Minnesota Democrats - delegates and alternates to the party's central committee - will meet Wednesday to officially choose the substitute candidate for Wellstone.
Erlandson said the family's choice would weigh heavily in the party's decision. He said he believes Mondale, a household name in Minnesota, will run if nominated.
Mondale, 74, hasn't returned calls to reporters or answered the door at his Minneapolis home.
Those close to Mondale said he isn't expected to comment publicly on a potential candidacy until after Tuesday's memorial service for the crash victims.
Meanwhile, federal officials said the investigation into the plane crash that killed Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone could take months.
The lead investigator said the plane is too heavily damaged to tell right away whether de-icing equipment was operating properly.
Pilots at the Minnesota airport where the plane was headed last Friday said the amount of ice was no more than normal.
The plane went down about two-and-a-half miles from the airport in Eveleth. The landing gear was down and the flaps were lowered properly.
Investigators are still studying inspections records and plane parts for clues.
If this wasn't a blatant "campaign activity" orchestrated by the Wellstone sons and their handlers, possibly James Carville as was reported yesterday, I don't know what was!
I'm sure they planned for it to get out of hand.
Ghouls will act like ghouls.
I agree with the statements that we are seeing a window into the truth of the democrat/socialist mind. No consideration for God therefore politics has become their god.
Such vanity - sacrifice all on the altar of power of the few.
Wonder if they think that power gives them eternal life?
The older Dems are dusting him off and have obviously hired Al's makeup "crew". When's the last time you saw a 75 year old with rosey Cheeks??
Wonder how much Mondale got paid to "un-retire"?
The Constitution enumerates one job for the Vice President of the United States, President of the Senate. VP Cheney's desire to attend the memorial services for one of his colleagues is understandable. The Wellstone family's action is incomprehensible! The lack of common sense, decorum and dignity diminishes their father's memory. Too bad!
Hmmm...I think you give these cretins waaaaay too much credit. After all, these are RATs we're talking about.
Yeah...as one FReeper put it, I'm surprised they didn't have them walk by and throw dollar bills into the coffin.
What a truly scrofulous bunch (just learned that word on FR ytdy)
It just occurred to me that the dis-invitation to Cheney is proof that they knew what this event was going to be from the outset. Right now the RATs are trying to say that they didn't plan the service to be a campaign event, they just got "swept up in the emotion." But, they knew before hand that it would be awkward for Cheney to be in attendance. Why would it be awkward for him if it weren't planned to be a campaign event. I guess they are lying again (surprise, surprise).
Funeral or memorial? No, it was just a way to have another rally for the sick and demented. Hope and pray we seize the country back in this election.
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