Holy Shit
October 25th, 2002 - 11:48 am
Senator Paul Wellstone has died in a plane crash.
I’m not sure I ever once agreed with anything he said, but Wellstone always struck me as a good man, true to his beliefs and willing to fight the good fight for them.
Please, kids, let’s not be crass and claim this is some sort of Carnahan 2000 conspiracy. This is a decent person, taken horribly and much too soon.
UPDATE: Oh, hell. Wellstone’s wife and their grown daughter were also on the plane, plus the expected staffers. Hell.
UPDATE: This isn’t much of a eulogy, but I never did write much about Wellstone. Nonetheless, here’s something I wrote about him in reference to the Ron Paul flap last month:
I
this just sucks………
Stephen,
This is not good. Also getting linked by you or the prof is turning into a virtual DOS atttack.
Fred
I’m a Minnesotan, and the sense here is one of absolute shock. I was never a fan of Wellstone’s politics, but he was a very magnetic and principled person…
This truly is a tragedy for the state of Minnesota…
i knew you’d have something good to say, sugar. thanks. we’re all completely stunned.
Still worse: According to radio reports, they had chartered the plane to go to a funeral.
I always admired Wellstone’s sincerity and courage of conviction. We could use more of that.
I’ve never cared for Wellstone’s politics, even though he was revered in the Gay community. (I’m gay, myself.)
But this is a tragedy. This is NOT the way I wanted him removed from office. A genuine shame, especially for his remaining sons. Sixty percent of the Wellstone family, suddenly gone without warning.
Minnesota is going to be a sad place for a while.
I never agreed with the man’s politics. Saying that I voted for him the first time because he was so darn different.
This is a very sad day here in Minnesota.
This ain’t right, even if he seldom was. My prayers for the surviving family members.
Well… I’m not dishonest enough to pretend I like or even respect a lefty loon that voted against use of force against Iraq (among other Idiotarian traits), but no matter what, nobody should have to go this way…
My sincere condolences to the family and may God give them strength in the trying times ahead.
There were similar sentiments from Limbaugh today, saying that Wellstone stood for what he believed in and never campaigned as anything else, and he could respect that.
With all due respect to the Emperor Misha, I like and respect a number of friends with whom I disagree on foreign policy. I count Sen. Wellstone among them.
I was never personally acquainted with the man, but all of us in St. Paul certainly got to know him well in the last twelve years.
Stephen is exactly right: we Minnesotans often disagreed with him on a lot of issues, but there’s no denying that he was a principled, respectful, dear, decent man.
I just hope that our good state can get through this with dignity and fairness.
There are many interesting questions that follow here – how the race will turn out, who Jesse might appoint, how this would affect the Senate in the next few months.
And I just don’t give a shit about any of them. Damn, damn, damn.
Nor I, James. The press and pundits, both professional and not, should declare a moratorium on that kind of speculation, at the very least until Monday.
Common decency should let Wellstone’s surviving sons have at least that much peace before their father’s death becomes a subject for political handicapping. Jeebus, they even lost their mother and sister.
Shit.
Although I thought his politics were goofy and naive, I always admired Paul Wellstone; he was earnest, honest and stuck by his convictions.
A tragic loss for Minnesota and the entire country.
I agree. Now just isn’t the time for this. I’ve been getting calls all afternoon from my Republican friends who are in just as much a state of shock as everyone else. This has been a pretty divise and hard-fought campaign, but at least for a few days it doesn’t matter what party you belong to or what you believe – we’re all diminished by the loss of Senator Wellstone.
Wellstone was the only politician I’ve ever met who compelled me to vote for him. I met him during his original green bus tour. He was a such a kind, intelligent, charismatic man. This is a real tragedy.
I sent this note to Instapundit, but it seems appropriate here, also:
Awful, awful, news about Senator Wellstone and his family. I disagreed with him politically, but he always struck me as a honorable and decent man, which aren’t always easy qualities to maintain in a political career. From the news reports, it sounds as it the plane was flying in freezing rain, which has caused many, many aviation fatalities. If I remember correctly, it was obviously bad weather that felled Mel Carnahan’s plane, also. The AP said that Sen. Wellstone was to attend a state legislators’ funeral and then making a campaign stop. Carnahan, of course, was also in the midst of a close campaign. It is speculation, but one wonders if the urgently felt need to go, go, go, in the middle of such a campaign sometimes has an effect on judgement as to whether to fly in marginal conditions. The pilots make the final decision, of course, but pilots wouldn’t be human if they didn’t pick up on their clients’/passengers’ urgency, especially in a situation when the client tends to use the same crew with frequency. We all have had times when we urgently felt that we had to absolutely be some place by a certain time, come hell or high water. Well, we really don’t, when you get right down to it. Not at considerable risk to your life. Sure, there are exceptions. Patton’s Third Army had to get to Bastogne, but the members of the 101st Airborne who were surrounded still maintain it wasn’t as urgent as is sometimes depicted. Ambulances have to get to hospitals, and fire trucks to burning buildings, but even they will slow down at intersections. I think most of us would do well to remember that our jobs and careers aren’t as important as we sometimes think, even if we have a lot of people who are trying to convince us otherwise. -Will Allen
Too late on the moratorium, VP; bloggers and “real” journalists alike are all over this one. I hope they feel at least a little dirty about it.
Myself, I can’t even break through the shock to work up any good gallows humor for Laurence Simon.
My condolences to the great state of Minny. Whatever Wellstones views were he had the basic tools so lacking today in the political arena. Faith, guts, did not shade the truth, character and a genuine desire to serve.
“It is speculation, but one wonders if the urgently felt need to go, go, go, in the middle of such a campaign sometimes has an effect on judgement as to whether to fly in marginal conditions. We all have had times when we urgently felt that we had to absolutely be some place by a certain time, come hell or high water. Well, we really don’t, when you get right down to it. Not at considerable risk to your life.”
Will — I think you make a good point, and one we all need to remember. A lot of traffic accidents are probably caused by people who “couldn’t be late.”
I remember seeing “Biography” on Ted Kennedy a number of years ago, and there was a discussion of a plane crash he was in while campaigning (I didn’t know about that before). According to the program, he had insisted on going despite bad weather. He survived, with terrible back injuries, but others did not. It left physical scars and a lot of guilt.
None of this is to take away from the tragic deaths in the Wellstone family, or to blame the late Senator.
I hesitated to post my message, lest somebody think I was being critical. It’s just a damn shame, and more so if such accidents come about due to lack of perspective. Hell, I remember taking a cross country red-eye once, Phoenix to Charlotte, and upon arrival at 6:30 I still faced a 5 hour drive to get back home, since it was a trip made on short notice, and driving to an airline hub was my fastest alternative. I’d barely slept on the plane, being too tall to do so in coach, and hadn’t gotten much sleep in Phoenix, either. In short, I had no business doing anything but getting a room and nodding off. But darnit, I just had to get home. So I started driving. About 90 minutes from home, things got fuzzy, and my next memory was being on the wrong side of a two lane highway with a minivan right in front of me. Luckily, the minivan driver as not as large a moron as I, and we managed to avoid one another. I proceeded to curse myself at the top of my lungs for most of the way home, so nodding off again wasn’t an option. Anyone seeing me drive would have likely concluded that I was hearing voices. If I felt such an overwhelming desire to get home for no other reason than wanting to sleep in my own bed, I can’t imagine the depth of desire to keep going, no matter what, in the course of hotly contested political campaign.
The only reason I know Paul Wellstone’s name is because I disagreed with him so strongly on the issue of Iraq. Him being a left-liberal democrat, I probably disagreed with him on a great many things for that matter. However, he was also one of the Senates strongest supporters of gay rights, and for that I tip my hat to him.