Remembering Wellstone

As I said at the time of his tragic and untimely death, I disagreed pretty forthrightly with pretty much everything Paul Wellstone stood for, at least politically - but, like many genuine conservatives, I had plenty of respect for him as a person.

While he was liberal enough to make Ted Kennedy blanche, and his convictions in that direction were utterly unshakeable, he had great intellectual respect for opposing viewpoints.

Now, his former employer - Carleton College, in Northfield, MN - is holding a public symposium on Wellstone, on February 28.

I mention that to give some context to what comes next.

This symposium was announced on the Minnesota Politics mailing list. I asked - on the mailing list - if anyone, especially Republicans, were interested in car-pooling to the event. I figure, it's worth covering. There's nothing about dissenting from Wellstone's beliefs that is inimical to morality, sensitivity, or for that matter anything Wellstone professed to beleive.

This was one of the responses posted on the mailing list - by a local Green activist:

Yeah, what could be more entertaining? Throw in the opportunity to get linked by Glenn Reynolds,

Reynolds would be great, but I'd like to get on Virginia Postrel's radar. But I digress

... and every Minnesota Republican with a Blogger account will be headed down to Northfield, ready to take (or at least claim) offense....

The only offense I could possibly take is the narrow-minded bigotry of some of Wellstone's supporters. While I disagreed, vocally and constantly, with Wellstone's politics, I expressed nothing but respect for him as a person, an intellectual and a fellow citizen. Would that many of his supporters were so honest.

Onward:

Are Paul and Sheila buried nearby? Maybe you could bring your digital cameras and post some JPEGs of you dancing on their graves. That would rawk the crowd over on freerepublic. That would get bumped and bumped again.

That ices it.

I'd figured the odds were maybe 1 in 4 I'd actually be able to do this. It's hard to find sitters, you know.

But after that crack - it's a lock. Even if I gotta drag the kids along, I'm there. I'll cover this event - the good, the bad, the Cantina-Band-Scene-esque. Because while Wellstone deserved all the respect conservatives give him, many of his supporters are no better than Klansmen, when you get right down to it.

Have fun, guys. Hope you rock the Blogdex charts. Don't forget the little people on MSD when you get linked by best-of-the-web.

I don't care if nobody reads it - I'll be there.

See you in Northfield on Feb. 28.

See "Trivial Pursuit, 2005" - Campaigns and Elections cites a few Minnesota stories in its Best and Worst of the 2002 Elections story.

Posted by Mitch at January 11, 2003 06:16 PM