Posted on 10/26/2002 3:57:54 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
WASHINGTON - Sen. Paul Wellstone, a Minnesota liberal who was locked in one of the tightest reelection contests in the country, died Friday with his wife and daughter, three aides and two pilots in a plane crash in northern Minnesota. Continues.
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Tragedy in Eveleth
As a dyed-in-the-wool conservative, there were few issues -- very few issues -- Minnesota's Paul Wellstone and I would see eye-to-eye on, but the Senate's most unabashed liberal, I hasten to say, was more than a worthy opponent.
Dubbed a "60s radical" by Mother Jones, the former Carleton College professor-turned-Senator was resolutely true to his beliefs, a liberal's liberal, tenaciously championing often-times daringly unpopular causes and positions, heedless of the risks, politically. An example was his 'no' vote on a resolution authorizing military action against Iraq, the only Democrat locked in a tight race to do so. The measure earlier this month sailed through the Senate, 77-23. Another was his vote against the hugely popular Welfare Reform Act of 1996, at the time again the only Democrat up for re-election casting a nay vote.
Indeed, the North Star State's senior Senator, who proudly bedecked his Senate offices with posters and pictures of Hubert Humphrey and Bobby Kennedy, was, in many ways, the very antithesis of the modern-day, phony-baloney Democrat Party. Sen. Wellstone eschewed poll-driven politics, he hated the two-faced, the devious, the insincere. Unlike most of his colleagues, he stood for something -- firmly, intently.
He delivered his speeches with the fervor and intensity, the ardor and zeal of a Sunday morning Baptist preacher. No-one slept when Wellstone spoke.
President Bush calls him "a man of deep convictions."
Scoring a stunning upset in 1990 against GOP Sen. Rudy Boschwitz, Professor Wellstone, whose old and decrepit green campaign bus became symbolic of his longshot bid, came to Washington loathing North Carolina's conservative Sen. Jesse Helms. Not long afterwards, the firebrand liberal was warmly singing his praises on the floor of the Senate.
It's why even his staunchest rivals have nothing but good things to say about Sen. Wellstone, who crossed the aisle only rarely, yet was always polite, decent, cordial, gracious, attentive. Wellstone, to borrow an oft-used cliche, could disagree without ever being disagreeable.
Times like these reminds us all how very fragile, how very precious, how very fleeting life truly is.
His doomed twin-engine plane crashed in a marshy, wooded area in northern Minnesota, tragically taking his life and that of his wife, Sheila, and his daughter, Marcia.
The world will be a lonelier place without them.
My heart goes out to David and Mark, Wellstone's two sons, and all his family and friends.
Anyway, that's...
My two cents..
"JohnHuang2"
May the Lord hold senator Wellstone and his family in the palm of His hand.
5.56mm
5.56mm
(A King Air Beech A100)
The pilot had reported no problems before the crash and there was no severe weather in the area at the time, the Federal Aviation Administration said. Because of overcast conditions, the plane would have been on instrument approach at the time of the crash.
A staffer for Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy, who had been campaigning with Wellstone, said Wellstone had earlier left Kennedy giving a speech on his behalf, and departed on his plane to attend a funeral. Kennedy was not on the plane.
Anyone know who it's registered to?
Well, then, it's too bad he was on the wrong side of the fence.
It was a charter flight out of Flying Cloud Airport. I believe it was Executive Aviation.
Paul Wellstone was a commie.
Paul Wellstone went back on his pledge not to run for re-election.
Ask Taxman his opinion of Paul Wellstone.
I think I'm going to puke.
May he spend eternity reviewing his voting record and what America stands for.
I am deeply sorry for his wife and eldest daughter.
If only Teddy Kennedy could have taken their two seats!
Senator Wellstone was an opponent, rather than an enemy, and for those who believed as he did, he was a fine avatar.
I agree.
I didn't agree with Wellstone on most things, but I respected his convictions.
I was watching C-Span this morning, and they were covering his death. One woman, from the republican line, called in and said it was God's will that caused Wellstone's death, and that she thanked God that this happened. I really flinched at this comment.
No one deserves that kind of treatment.
Unfortunately it gives some people the impression that all Republicans, or conservatives, feel that way.
Thank goodness most don't.
So C-Span finally decided to use the conservative line. Did they wipe off all the dust first? As you know concerning the phenonomena of seminar callers and disruptors, the chances that this woman really was a Repub making such a call are not really that high.
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