The Dead Zone

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The Dead Zone
by Robert Yoho, Columnist and Senior Editor

November 4, 2002

"Eye on Conservatism"

Columnist Robert Yoho The Democrats’ funeral service for the late Sen. Paul Wellstone (D.-MN) was quite possibly the most appalling thing I have ever witnessed in these many years of following politics.

Since Sen. Wellstone’s death in a tragic plane crash, most of the genuine expressions of regret have come from the members of the Republican Party. Despite their intense differences with Wellstone on policy, I think many Republicans truly liked this intensely likeable man. The loyal opposition have proven to be his very best friends.

Then you have the Democrats. Have they no shame? The Democrats turned a good and decent man’s memorial service into a taxpayer funded, one-party pep rally. The tone was set for the rally — we should have predicted its focus — when the Democrats refused to allow Vice President Dick Cheney to attend. That should have been a harbinger of things to come.

It was appropriate that this memorial service/pep rally took place in late October. The Democrat ghouls of made Wellstone the life of the party. They treated their dead senator’s memory like a skeleton at a Halloween party. I am surprised they didn’t parade his dead body in front of the crowd. But had they done so, at least the 20, 000 party hacks in Minneapolis might have remembered the man, woman, and child they were supposed to be honoring. There is no way to sugarcoat it: these people profaned a dead man’s memorial service.

I was delighted when it appeared that polls showed Wellstone might lose the election. And realizing he might lose was the reason that the Clinton/Mondale/McAuliffe wing of the party were actually happy when the senator’s plane went down. No doubt they fondly remembered the electoral bump they got from the late Sen. Carnahan’s plane crash.

Who cares about the death of another Democrat if it wins their party another election? In the dead zone, winning elections and the acquisition of power are all that really matters. Democrats have as little respect for the dead as they do for inconvenient campaign laws in New Jersey. The loss of a few loyal Democrat voters can always be adequately offset by the introduction of more Haitian boat people.

I didn’t see any sorrow, grief, tears, remorse, or shock at the senator’s passing. I saw only glee — a morbid and depraved gaiety at the untimely death of one of their own! It’s bad enough that the modern Democrat Party holds no abiding principles. But they also have no morals, no honor, no decorum, no shame, no propriety, no ethics, no decency, and no class.

The scene was so bad that Gov. Jesse Ventura (I-MN) and his wife actually walked out of the service. It was truly an honorable and splendid response from a man rarely known for his dignity. Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) walked out also. Anybody who walked out of this Halloween Party has earned my highest respect.

Sen. Paul Wellstone was an unapologetic liberal in much the same way that I am an unapologetic conservative. He was often the single opposing vote to the stated positions of his party. I might have called him "principled" but he betrayed those principles when he chose to break his campaign promise to limit himself to 2 terms.

I have no doubt that Paul Wellstone and I would have despised each other’s political beliefs. However, I think that I would have liked the man. Further, I think we would have liked each other. The one thing we had in common was a passion for partisanship.

However, a passion for partisanship still has its place in the arena of ideas. In times of great personal loss, party warriors should sheath their swords. Sen. Wellstone was a good and decent man. He certainly deserved better, especially from those in his own party. ***

Photo of Robert Yoho courtesy of staff files