Posted on 10/31/2002 2:22:02 PM PST by mondonico
Political operatives at the Democratic National Committee in Washington developed the plan to turn the memorial service for Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone into a political rally, top party sources tell Capitol Hill Blue.
The party also urged the Wellstone family to ask Vice President Dick Cheney to not attend the service and concocted the excuse that security for the VP would disrupt the event even though Secret Service security was required for former president Bill Clinton, who was invited and who did attend.
Rick Kahn, the Wellstone campaign worker and friend, worked the highly partisan crowd into a frenzy with strong rhetoric urging them to get out and elect replacement candidate Walter Mondale.
"That was the plan all along and it was one of the reasons we didn't want Cheney at the event," says one Democratic political operative who spoke only under promise that his name not be used. "It was a high stakes gamble but this is a campaign that demands high risks."
The secret plan was developled at the DNC headquarters in Washington and approved by party chairman Terry McAuliffe, the source said.
Kahn was then briefed and urged to turn the memorial event into a political rally. Wellstone campaign manager Jeff Blodgett's apology Wednesday afternoon was also part of the plan, designed to provide party deniability, the sources said.
"There were two agendas at work," one source said. "We needed to draw attention to the election. Between the sniper and Iraq, the election has been lost in the news. And then we needed to energize the Democratic base and Wellstone supporters in Minnesota."
While Kahn's firey rhetoric, and walkouts by Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura and GOP Senate Leader Trent Lott, fueled controversy, Democratic political operatives in Washington congratulated each other Wednesday.
"Mission accomplished" was the message of the day at the DNC and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee offices.
Sources within both committees also said the Wellstone event is only the beginning of plans for media-generating activities through the election next week.
"This is war," one operative said. "The Republicans are too busy planning war on Iraq. They won't even see us coming."
The DNC and DSCC did not return phone calls seeking comment on this report.
© Copyright 2002 Capitol Hill Blue
Great minds think alike. That was my first thought as well.
Sounded like a bad re-write of Evita!...
Just because the Democrat leadership has no standards doesn't mean that none of the worker bees do.
Believe it or not, there are some liberals (not many, but a few) who believe in things like honesty, fair play and patriotism.
Doug Thompson of CHB might know of one...
Look at Gore!! I swear that he is hitting the Thai sticks again!!! You would thing he was staring at the sun or something! Wotta loser! Figures he would be in the middle of this.
LOL...they couldda had him totin' the casket down the long hall, marching to a funeral dirge. No, that wouldn't work as everybody had their PartyFace on...well, why didn't they hire some folks from Bourbon Street play some raucous jazz and hoot it up like a funeral masrch/Party?!
RATS're Dolts!!
MUD
T-MaxxMeat...MUD
Assuming the Dems fail in many of the states where they'd hoped to pick up seats, there will be a "Dump McAuliffe" movement (i.e. power "coup" over the purse strings and where the money goes, etc.). In other words, there's already internal fighting going on and a lot of people are into self-protection of their turf or whatever job they may have.
To understand what this all means, you have to think like an insider.
I'd like to pre-emp any rumors about Wellstone's plane being sabotaged by right-wingers and say right now, the Democrats (probably Bill and Hillary) killed Wellstone. His race was too tight.
This is good news.
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