[MplsSteve]

Well, the Wellstone Memorial (version 4,316) is finally up and running.

There was coverage of it in tonight's local news.

I'm at a loss for words. What happened was a tragedy.

But the whole Wellstone thing has approached cult of personality status.

Opinions anyone?

[Hank Rearden]

Opinions anyone?

Useless leftie parasite.

How's that?

[general_re]

Just waiting for the inevitable "I drank the water at the Wellstone shrine and it cured my cancer!" reports....

[Jalapeno]

I think his memorial service turned political rally will always overshadow anything he did at the national level.I think it was truly a defining moment for the Democratic Party...and cost them a great many votes.

[Spruce]

I forget, what, exactly, did he accomplish in the Senate? ...<crickets>...Anyone?...<crickets>...Anyone?

[KarlInOhio]

Would George Bush have been elected president without the crassness of the Wellstone Funer-rally? Which was worse, booing Republican office holders attending it or the bringing in a Jumbotron for a memorial? How many Republican voters did it give an urgency to vote and how many Democrats did it shame?

[SteveMcKing]

Now filming, the Paul Wellstone memorial: Triumph of the Will 2

(Subtitled "Electric Boogaloo")

[SShultz460]

It's Time to Park the Bus

[Sir Francis Dashwood]

Is this their attempt at necromancy?

The funerally wasn't enough...

[spinestein]

["I didn't know how I'd react when I saw this," Mark Wellstone, the younger of the Wellstones' two sons, told a crowd of several hundred people. "But it turned out really, really nice. And it felt really good to see all the [familiar] faces today."]



"...and I'm glad to see Senator Clinton in the audience tonight, doing all she can to stem the tide of Republican extremism. And there's Ted Kennedy, standing as a bulwark against the evil conservative juggernaut, truly despicable people like MR. BUSH! BUSH WHO DESPOILS OUR ENVIRONMENT! TAKES AWAY THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN! THE RIGHTS OF AFRICAN-AMERICANS! WE NEED TO STAND TOGETHER AGAINST THIS EVIL NOW! AND VOTE FOR A DEMOCRAT! VOTE FOR ANY DEMOCRAT! WE'RE GONNA WIN! WIN! WIN! YEAH! YEAH! YEAH! YEAH! YEEEEAAAAAAHHHH!!!!"

[JennysCool]

It looks great!

[kenth]

[Hunble]

Now I know where to take a piss, the next time I visit Northern Minnesota.

[sphinx]

I didn't like Wellstone's politics, but I do recall that in worker-bee polls of Senate employees while he was still alive, Jesse Helms and Paul Wellstone were regularly named the nicest Senators.

[gridlock]

People of the World, join in!
Form a Love Train, Love Train...

People all over the World, join hands!
Start a Love Train, Love Train...

[dbehsman]

Good Lord! ANOTHER Wellstone memorial?!?!?!

I would think that the little dummies would have learned the lesson the first time!

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

[Valin]

And he's still DEAD..PERISHED..INERT..EXPIRED!
I can't believe how many Wellstone stickers I saw Sat. at the protest.

[wallcrawlr]

Wellstone Lives! Dont Park the Bus!!

[JLO]

Maybe some folks don't recall that he was a great veterans' advocate. This synopsis is how I choose to remember Senator Wellstone. He helped countless veterans.

"Dead Friends by James Glaser
October 30, 2002

I had a good friend die this weekend. Senator Paul Wellstone, while not a close personal friend, was a very good friend to all Veterans. Senator Wellstone made Veteran Health Care an integral part of his entire Senate career. Senator Wellstone was not out to help just Minnesota Veterans, but every veteran that has served America.

*snip*

Many people always thought of Senator Wellstone as anti-war and he was, but he certainly was not anti-veteran. Over the years more and more veterans learned just how hard this anti-war Senator fought for them. Constantly Wellstone was badgering those supposed military hawks in Washington, to give Veterans what was due to them.

It came slow, but Veteran groups started to respect this Senator from Minnesota. In 1995, both the Vietnam Veterans of America and the Minnesota Paralyzed Veterans of America honored Senator Wellstone. The VVA gave Wellstone the "Legislator of the Year" Award and he told me that he was very proud of that.

Later on Senator Wellstone received Awards from the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans, American Ex-P.O.W.s, Amvets, Military Order of the Purple Heart, National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, and the Forgotten 216th.

Not one of these organizations gives out their award lightly and to give such awards as these, to a man openly and actively seeking to stop war, made these awards all the more special. Veterans like to honor veterans, Senator Wellstone was not a Veteran and fought hard to stop the Vietnam War. These organizations came to see that even though they disagreed with Wellstone on the value of war, they both agreed on the value of the service rendered to our nation by veterans and both agreed on the Nation's debt, owed to these men and women."

http://www.jamesglaser.org/2002/p20021030.html

[Senator_Blutarski]

But the whole Wellstone thing has approached cult of personality status.

It goes beyond "cult of personality" to "cult of deity".

My neighbor (50 year old high school art teacher, male pattern baldness with a pony tail) has a "What Would Wellstone Do?" bumper sticker on his pickup truck.

(The truck was purchased with his inheritance from his mother.)