There is no controlling legal authority. I’ve been to about a dozen funerals / “memorial services,” and I haven’t heard any laughter at one yet. Clinton, what a classy guy.
It is not surprising that partisan Ds would applaud Clinton. I wonder when they will figure out that he is a populist with no core beliefs. Nobody smart hates him because he was a liberal President, which he wasn’t. “You can fool some of the people all of the time…”
December: expecting class from a Democrat is like expecting honesty from a Republican.
I didn’t watch it, so I’ll pass on details.
However, I’ll wager Wellstone’s sons knew better than Ventura, the GOP, and assorted naysayers what their father would have wanted.
And I also think that it’s none of our damn business how they chose to run things. If they’d made into a 'Nawlins-style festival roaming through the streets with Clinton playing sax, well, good for them.
That’s what you get for going to Republican funerals.
It was a five hour event, and someone laughed? At something, we’re not sure what? Whoa, what a scandal.
This obviously wasn’t a funeral service, it was a reception. Any idiot who’s attended any generic funeral would know this.
A funeral service is solumn, usually religious. Often a limited number of people are invited.
A funeral reception is for socializing, and to invite folk who may not have been invited to a more intimate/religious service.
The allegedly offensive rally was a reception, not a service. Laughing at a funeral service is despicable. Laughing during the reception is expected, you’re with friends and family.
To illustrate: My wife’s best friend passed away a few weeks ago. Breast cancer. We attended the service, it was very solumn, a service was read. We respectfully said goodbye to our friend.
Afterwards, we went to the reception. Food and drink was served. Some funny stories about our friend were shared, and we laughed together. And at some point we probably jested about something unrelated to our friend and laughed again. I’m sure I laughed several times. Is this a problem?
I’m not sure why you want to argue this point. I agree that there is a difference between a service, a burial, and a reception. I’ve been to my fair share of funerals. However, the event was billed as a Wellstone memorial service not a reception. The media portrayed the event as a memorial and continues to do so in discussions of the fallout. Wellstone’s campaign manager, Jeff Blodget refers to the event as a service in today’s apology.
Even Mike Erlandson, Chairman of the Minnesota DFL called it a memorial service:
Well, at least in the short run. But over the long haul it worked a lot better for Octavian.
And the OP, like so many from the same author is Much Ado About Nothing.
After reading some of the coverage in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, I was moved to open a Pit thread, How many jackasses can you cram into Williams Arena?. There had been a gentleman’s agreement to hold off on the campaign until after the service. The gentleman kept his word.
This from the same person who yesterday was complaining that those nasty Republicans were campaigning against Wellstone.
Do you ever sprain anything flip-flopping like that?
Regards,
Shodan
Hey, I found a really cool news clip for December and all the anti-Democrats to play with.
http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/news/4235242.htm
What apparently really happened, if anybody cares.
http://www.mndaily.com/article.php?id=3451&year=2002
Now, to anybody without a heavy anti-Democrats agenda, all this story proves is that this Minnesota election campaign has been an extremely hard-fought one, so it’s no surprise that the memorial service should have turned into a rally (or, “What Elucidator Said”.)
However, for all the Anti-Democrats, it confirms their impression of the Democrats as Evil Incarnate, and to you I say, go for it, guys! Milk this puppy for all it’s worth, I give you my blessing. Hey, it’s got everything–Wicked Democrats, Abused Republicans, and best of all, it’s Speaking Ill of the Dead!
Oh, and, BTW, I couldn’t find anything offhand on the “police report” that the GOP said it was gonna file, so it’s possible that Wellstone’s thugs went around to Coleman’s headquarters and intimidated them. I think y’all should seriously considering racketeering charges against the Minnesota Dems, not to mention “pain and suffering damages” against Wellstone’s estate…
Have fun, guys.
[note: This post is available in a Sarcasm-Free format for the Sarcasm-Impaired. See the Straight Dope Home Page.]
Well, true, but that didn’t help Brutus any.
I don’t see why some people seem to think that whether Wellstone would have wanted it is so significant. I don’t know what he would have wanted, but if it was this then he was a jerk too.
All social situations involve the interaction of people other than the “star”. Commonly accepted standards give people the ability to understand their role and place in it and act accordingly. The fact that someone is the center of attention in a given circumstance does not give carte blanche to act however they want. (If a life insurance agent wants to badger all the guests at his own wedding to buy life insurance from him it is not OK simply because that is what he wants.)
A public memorial service for a Senator who died in office is a chance for those of all political persuasions who he represented or who dealt with him politically to appreciate such fine qualities as he may have had. To use this as an opportunity for a political rally is wrong. And more, to take the hand of friendship and bipartisanship being offered by those of other political persuasions and respond with a slap in the face is plain disgusting. No matter what Wellstone may have wanted.
Cite please ? Who exactly defined it that way ? Are there heavy fines and jail time for those who don’t comply with these so-called cultural conventions ? Should there be ? If you want to have such a ready-cooked McMemorial service, you’ll just have to wait until a Republican senator dies.
For the record, I am not a republican. I rarely ever vote republican and strongly disagree with a large portion of their agenda. However, this was repugnant. Booing people at a memorial service? Giving a campaign speech poorly disguised as a eulogy claiming that it would disrespect Wellstone’s memory and that “We’ll drown in a river of tears” if Mondale doesn’t get elected?
If these are truly things that Wellstone would’ve done when he was alive, then that makes Wellstone an asshole. “Everybody does it” isn’t a valid excuse, DDG.
Stoid:
I agree- so why did they turn the memorial into a political rally in the first place?
Culture is defined by conventions of the people. It evolves. I think the surprised reaction of the people in this instance is an indication that the Wellstone memorial represented a departure from cultural norms.
Going to leave you to figure this out yourself. Think.
Cute. Very cute.
Mojo
So, how’d they do that, Mojo? Cunningly placed subliminal advertising? Democrat operatives in the audience, armed with cattle prods to coerce the unwilling masses? How was the perfidy plotted, planned, and executed? How did they manage to get the message out to prospective attendees, “rabid partisans only!” Without anybody else catching on?
How’d they do that, Mojo?
Maybe it was a combination of intent and spontaneity.
But it was enough to disgust the governor, move his wife to tears, and cause a flood of phone calls to WCCO-TV. It was enough that a reporter asked Bill Walsh for the Republican response to the rally […shudder…]. It was even enough to bring an apology from Wellstone’s campaign manager.
Why are you stooping to defend it?
Wow, is speaking ill of the dead morally better, equal to or worse than abusing a memorial service? Apart from that, conservatives didn’t need this behavior to call Wellstone such names when he was living, they found plenty of other things to dog him with. I’m sure he probably isn’t bothered by your opinion of him.
I think the phrase you may have been seeking was “major-league asshole,” by the way. Or is that a registered slogan mark of the president?
here’s how:
When you stack the audience with partisans, and rev them up with political speeches, that’s what you get.
Per my first post to this thread - from the AP, before the service: Thousands Gather to Honor Wellstone
That is what one might consider appropriate.
Why are people suddenly looking to Jesse Ventura as an arbiter of accepatable decorum? And, “moved to tears?” Please! Either this is hyperbole, and should be dismissed, or a case of exceptional hypersensitivity, and should be treated.
Why are you bothering to get upset about it, seeing as how it was a service for someone (I presume) not related to you?