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Monday, October 31, 2005
Wellstone memorial, still spinning after all these years
Spotty and the Guru have already taken a look at Katherine Kersten's dishonest screed about the Wellstone memorial. Let me highlight the most dishonest sentence in the piece:
As grief seized the nation, there was a widespread impulse to set aside politics as usual.
In fact, we saw a tour de force in politics as usual the instant the service ended. The four hour event was reduced to a 10 second soundbite which was cynically and brilliantly manipulated by the right-wing smear machine which has perfected the art of falsely complaining that only Democrats are foul enough to do what conservative attack dogs actually do.
3 Comments:
I expected to see a post from Jambo on this topic.
My biggest fault with KK's article was that I could not understand what point she was trying to make, and that the second half didn't make any sense. It truly was poorly written.
The fact that the memorial served to energize the Republicans and a lot of independents to vote for Coleman and against Mondale is true. But for that Bonehead speech (whether or not intended as a political screed), Mondale would have and should have won.
In the end, it was a political event, and the Democrats did nothing to prevent it from being so.
The Democrats have no one but themselves to blame for that one. Talk about "snatching defeat from the jaws of victory." That was a textbook case.
btw, I voted for Mondale.
By 
, at
11:53 AM
Kahn's speech, in particular, was a political disaster. Harkin's speech wasn't much better. I've often wondered whether Kahn's emotional outcry influenced Harkin.
I think KK's column misrepresents what happened at the memorial, inasmuch as it turns Kahn's speech into the entire event. On the other hand, I think there was a lack of accountability among the organizers and presenters. The assertion from the left is that the speakers should be forgiven because they were grief-stricken and speaking from the heart. I've heard, though I don't know if it's true, that none of the presentations was prepared in advance. If true, it's shocking to me to think you would have so little planning for such an important event.
I've heard it said about the OJ Simpson trial that the LAPD framed a guilty man. The Wellstone memorial is similar in that mistakes were made. Those mistakes were regrettable. But the way the right wing attack machine manipulated those mistakes is unforgiveable.
Crap, I had not even seen this article until seeing Hammer's post otherwise I would ahve had something to say on the subject. To be a good blogger you should no doubt manage to find the time to read at least some news every day. I'm afraid I'm not a very good blogger. I do however have a house full of Jack-o-lanterns and a couple big piles of leaves to show for my weekend.
The best chapter of Al Franken's "Liars" book was his chapter on the Wellstone memorial. If you have the book go back and read that part.
