The Wellstone family said “it was in part to spare mourners from security searches.” They went on to say “In part, sure. But mostly because we didn’t want the open casket to start spinning.” When asked if the security search was a transparent, laughable and ineffective face-saving sop for the Vice President of the United States, Cousin Whet Wellstone replied: “Yep, that darn security, what could we do? Plus which, the entire area for hypocritical chickenhawk ceo oil-men dictators who supported Paul while he was alive – that was all full with General Pinochet’s contingent,” he said, impressively keeping a straight face despite the laughter from the nearby Mondale Supporters, and the chants of “Fuck you! Fuck you! Fuck you!” in the background.
Asking Cheney not to attend was low-class. The Vice President is the presiding officer of the US Senate, so, Cheney and Wellstone were colleagues, in a way. Also, the Vice President can by thought of as representing the President.
If this had been a private family funeral, I could understand excluding Mr. Cheney. But, it was a huge public event.
The aptly named Dick Cheney had involved himself in this election in a personal and inappropriate way. He called the early presumptive GOP candidate Tim Pawlenty and ordered him out of the race so that the Bush administration’s hand-picked toady Norm Coleman could run instead. This was a gross interference by the White House in a state election. Since when does the White House get to tell local parties who they can nominate for congress?
Cheney despised Paul Wellstone when he was alive, and his attempt to crash the memorial was disingenuous, insincere, insulting and hypocrital.
There were plenty of republicans at the event. The decision wasn’t political, it was personal. Paul Wellstone’s sons had a right not to open their arms to a man who hated their father.
I agree it was low-class. The message the organizers are sending is, essentially, “it is impossible to disagree with us politically in good faith.” Which from what I’ve heard about Wellstone is pretty much the opposite of how he was in life – true to his leftist beliefs, yes, but also perfectly capable of respecting and even liking those with different views.
Besides, Cheney would be attending as the emissary of the President – he would be representing the office in addition to Bush personally. To steal a line from Stephen Ambrose’s Band of Brothers, “you salute the rank, not the man.” In disinviting Cheney, the organizers were disrespecting not only Bush, but the presidency as an institution.
They didn’t disinvite him. It’s not like they invited then changed their minds. Dick had basically invited himself. I’m sure the Whitehouse felt they had to offer to come to the funeral. And remember this was not just for the senator but for his wife and child. The thing is the press (and us) should not be making a big deal out of the surviving family members choice of who should attend the memorial service.
and the ‘it’s impossible to disagree with us politically in good faith’ is Dick and Ws stock and trade. They are the ones who believe if you don’t go along with the White House you are un-Americand and don’t belive in defending America.
Ah, they don’t. The decision ultimately rests with the local parties. They CAN, however, say things like “if you don’t nominate our guy, the president will not campaign for you,” or “if you don’t nominate our guy, we will use our influence with the RNC to reduce your funding from the national party’s coffers.” That’s just good, clean, hardball politics, and presidents of both parties have done it. Nuthin’ wrong with that.
Besides, what does that have to do with Wellstone? It’s just internal party politics.
I’d like to hear your basis for saying Cheney “depising” Wellstone. They disagreed on a lot of issues, sure, but that doesn’t necessarily translate into personal hatred.
For at least the second time in as many years, I am in full agreement with Scylla. Except, of course, for the epithet “shit head”, as I am far too polite and decorous to use such a term, and anyone who thinks otherwise has got thier head up…where it doesn’t belong.
The vice-president took away the state’s right to nominate the candidate of their choice with one phone call. I am unaware of any precedent for this.
The White House had identified Wellstone as a key target in the November election. Part of the reason the vote on Iraq was pushed through congress so quickly was to get Wellstone on record as voting against it, thus alowing the GOP to villify him as anti-American. (This tactic backfired btw, Wellstone doubled his lead after the vote)
The decision to say no to Cheney was made by Wellstone’s sons, NOT by the DFL. Wellstone’s sons are not politicians. They invited plenty of other republicans. Clearly they felt that their father’s differences with Cheney went beyond politics into the personal.
Somehow I don’t think we would have heard much outrage from conservatives if Al Gore had been snubbed under similar circumstances.
Not trying to make anything out of this, but the family appreciation for the offer is unsupported so far in this thread.
Neither is ** Ace0Spades’** report of the tongue in cheek Wellstone family response suggesting that the publicly stated excuse for the snub was bullshit.
Waitaminute. The VP called a potential candidate and asked him not to run, suggesting that a bruising primary campaign would leave whichever candidate won in a worse position to defeat Wellstone. The candidate agreed to do so. What exactly is the problem here? Certainly Pawlenty could have continued to run for the nomination, albeit without the support of the White House and the RNC.
Talking someone out of running != taking away the right of a state to nominate who they want.
The white Hiouse had no business interfering in a state primary process PERIOD. Pawlenty “agreed” because he had no choice. It was not a “request” it was an ORDER and he knew it. He was definitely not happy about it:
“Makes you wonder about the process - the integrity of the process - and why people show up at all these meetings and do the things that they do at the grassroots level.”
Rep. Tim Pawlenty
December, Republicans were not excluded from the event. Dick Cheney was excluded. By the family. Not by the DFL.
In support of Diogenes, let’s not forget that if it weren’t for W and Cheney, Coleman would be running for Governor of Minnesota right now. And he’d probably win. As it is, he was losing to Wellstone and he’s trailing Mondale. I seriously doubt he’ll take the senate seat - so the GOP’s political wrangling got them nowhere.
In defense of the family, I can see why they might not want Cheney there - over 20,000 people attended the memorial service. Can you imagine how long it would take to get that many people through the tight security required by the VP’s presence? The family wanted Wellstone’s constituents to be able to attend - these are Minnesotans that barely ever saw Wellstone. Cheney got to see him often. Gotta agree with Scylla here - it was a caring offer that was appreciated but declined.
Snicks