Peggy Noonan - 'No Class': What Paul Wellstone might have thought of the memorial rally.

Opinion Journal ^ | 11/01/2002 | Peggy Noonan

[Sal]

I thought it was pretty well defined in the thread that called it the "Nuremburg Rally". I saw only a short bit of the "memorial" travesty, but I did hear the chants and they sounded just like "Sieg Heil!" over and over, and the raw, vicious hatred was palpable. These people are brown-shirt, jack-booted thugs and they would like to kill us just as much as Al Qaeda would like to IMO. Thank God the Clintons were unable to get the guns!

I usually like Peggy Noonan, but she's deaf, dumb and blind on this one IMO. That's probably because she knew and liked Paul Wellstone. I didn't, so I can't say if she's right or wrong. I can say that if he's judged on the spawn he left behind, ... well never mind.

Nuremburg Rally. That's exactly what it was, and we'd better head it off before it's too late.

[MHGinTN]

Saul Alinsky, Rules For Radicals One of Hatellary Clintoon's favorite books,by her own admission!

[AFPhys]

I am excited to have just noted that Drudge is now featuring this on his page... I didn't see it earlier.

[Miss Marple]

Let me be very candidly specific. Some of you need to get a good psychologist and a good holy man or woman, a priest or rabbi or minister--or how about all three--and figure out why you're turning everything in your life into politics.

This is Peggy's very elegant way of telling the democrats that they are either insane or demon-possessed or both.

[isthisnickcool]

I usually like Peggy Noonan, but she's deaf, dumb and blind on this one IMO. That's probably because she knew and liked Paul Wellstone.

She only met Wellstone once. This is her third odd piece in a row. The one called "Whew" about the "snipers" was borderline silly and so was the one called "Paul Wellstone:An Appreciation"

See her archives here.

The Dems. have shown over and over that they will do just about anything to win. But the Wellstone "pep rally" showed that they might really do ANYTHING to win. Makes you wonder.....

[Rifleman]

I think he is the same place that Wellstone is.

[E Rocc]

One wonders if it's true that not long ago, someone suggested to Wellstone that he should get Peggy Noonan to write some speeches for him, and he said "not in this lifetime". >:)

Considering Wellstone's reputation for integrity (deserved or not) and the way the rally defecated on it, a very good piece.

-Eric

[IncPen]

Peggy's soft manner here is likely to consider the contemplative mood, which is all to the good.

You're probably right. When I clicked on the link to read this I thought, "I hope she gets it."

I thought she was too easy on them, and the device came off to this reader as being not unlike a high-school English paper.

Thanks for the reply...

[TexasNative2000]

Let me be very candidly specific. Some of you need to get a good psychologist and a good holy man or woman, a priest or rabbi or minister--or how about all three--and figure out why you're turning everything in your life into politics.

This is Peggy's very elegant way of telling the democrats that they are either insane or demon-possessed or both.

I thought the same thing. She has drawn them in with soothing rhetoric and proceeded to tell them they are warped and need serious help.

[spectre]

P.S.

"And I can't BELIEVE, I just can't believe that you wouldn't allow the Vice President of these United States to attend the memorial service in my honor. You told him "stay away, don't come?"..

What is wrong with you people?

sw

[Lauratealeaf]

Everyone knows what happened, no one can deny it, but everyone is too shocked by it to speak clearly about it.

That is because most of us have respect for death. We automatically feel compassion for those who have lost loved ones. However, most of us were not prepared for the political spectacle that the Wellstone Memorial became and most of us were shocked when we saw the sons of Paul Wellstone behaving in such undignified manners. It was almost the feeling one would have when out of one's own culture. The alien nature of that memorial was very raw. Growing up I was always repelled when I heard some of my elderly southern relatives say that blacks are ok one on one but get them together it's a different thing....... Well, after this week's disgusting display I think we have discovered that it is very much true of democrats. Maybe one Democrat alone is ok but a crowd of them is a Saturnalian blood-letting.

[RJCogburn]

There are some bad folks on the other side, it's fair to say it. But most of them? All of them? They're all the enemy? How could that be?

One could say this from either side.

[Enterprise]

"But the words that truly say what happened in Minnesota, the words that stick and the words that succinctly define it have not yet been uttered."

When I got up this morning I was really going to utter those "words that stick" until I read your post. Now, I'm not going to utter them, no matter how much you beg and plead.

[Jeff Chandler]

the chants and they sounded just like "Sieg Heil!" over and over

They were chanting "We will win!" which is unnervingly close to "Sieg Heil!" which translates as "Hail Victory!".

[1Old Pro]

Only one thing missing from Paul, he should have spanked his kids and admonished them for allowing such a party and celebrating their new found fortune/inheritance.

[KC Burke]

Big fan of Peggy's voice and her insight. I have been since I read What I Saw at the Revolution when it first came out. Its easy to see her sincerity here, but its framing in Wellstone's voice is wasted. I would rather have seen her make the same points in her own voice, as Noonan. It would be more effective.

But, that event was so jarring and illuminating that all thoughtful people are bound to still be grasping for that special insight.

[Taliesan]

Peggy thinks the people on that casket/podium have a conscience. How quaint.

Memo to Peggy: those are the people who, if they gained all political power tomorrow, would confiscate all your property and lodge you on a collective farm. If you resisted, they would have you shot.

[IncPen]

no matter how much you beg and plead

A gentleman never begs... a lady never makes him....

: )

[Enterprise]

Even a gentleman can blush though.

[ClancyJ]

I agree - this is in a fashion using a fictional Wellstone to chastise the dems - a different version of using his casket as the stump.

Not her best article.