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A Wellstone Moment
Eleven days before the 2002 general election, Sen. Paul Wellstone (D–MN), his wife and daughter and five others, were killed in a plane crash while campaigning for re-election. The memorial service held four days later in Williams Arena on the campus of the University of Minnesota was a debacle.
First, the Wellstone family demanded that Vice President Dick Cheney not attend. Then the Senate Minority Leader, Trent Lott (R–MS) was met with scattered boos when he entered the arena. After some relatively bland tributes, Wellstone’s campaign treasurer, Rick Kahn, took to the stage. He turned the service into a political rally. He implored everyone to use the tragedy for political gain, especially calling out Rep. Jim Ramstad, a moderate Republican and friend to Wellstone, to ensure a Democratic victory over Norm Coleman.
By the end, there were beach balls being tossed in the crowd (Yes, someone brought a beach ball to a funeral) and thousands of people started chanting “Fritz! Fritz! Fritz!” when Wellstone’s replacement on the ballot, former Vice President Walter Mondale, was shown on the JumboTron. Freed from the constraints by Kahn, Sen. Tom Harkin (D–IA) continued the rally mood. Before it was over, Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura (I) felt compelled to just walk out.
It was, said future Senator Al Franken, the fault of the Republicans. While admitting that “reasonable people of good will were genuinely offended” it was the “manufactured outrage” of the Republicans that made it worse than it was. And perhaps he had a point. The attendees were, in their grief, being honest. There was nothing said the night of Oct. 29 that they didn’t say and believe on the night of October 24th.
Which brings us to the events of this past weekend and the death of Sen. John McCain. On both the left and the right, people who had no use for the man in life have stumbled over themselves to praise him because they believe that in doing so, they can inflict damage on the current occupant of the White House. Unlike the Wellstone incident, this grief-cum-political-statement carries with it the crackle of Confederate currency. A date-filtered Google search confined to the period between the 2008 GOP Convention and the election of Barack Obama shows that both the media and many of his Republican colleagues carried a very different view of the late Senator from Arizona.
In the aftermath of McCain’s passing, I was determined to stay out of it, adhering to the adage of not speaking ill of the dead. But inevitably someone went “there” — that is offering praise to the Senator as a means of going after Mr. Trump. I was excoriated for pointing that out. And I did retreat from the conversation, not due to anything that was said to me, but because it was a work/travel day that kept me offline. But there was nothing I said on Saturday night that I would not have said publicly on the previous Thursday.
Because in the end, John McCain III and Donald Trump are more similar than not: both loutish, both thin-skinned, both convenient with the truth, and both centered on themselves. His life stands a very imperfect vessel to use as a cudgel against another very imperfect man currently on the political stage.
The member that praised one to damn another was undoubtedly sincere and honest in both sentiments, which is more than can be said for the news media. Ten years ago, the same people that were worshiping him over the weekend were savaging McCain as a Nazi. Many on the right are gobbling it up, retweeting, reposting, and generally ignoring the hypocrisy.
In the end, what is more destructive? A brutal and honest “incivility” or false, disingenuous platitudes of the dead crafted to be yielded as a political weapon in the heat of the present moment?
Published in General
Dude, I don’t think you can count “medium” amongst your many abilities.
Additionally, I posit that he has been too sick recently to do much of anything.
So no.
Just no.
McCain was working on his last book before his cancer was diagnosed in July 2017. McCain continued to come to Congress until December 2017, leading the Armed Forces Committee. McCain continued to be vital and alert, as shown by the HBO Documentary, “For Whom the Bell Tolls” which was filmed after his diagnosis, and after he had returned to Sedona. (It aired on CNN on Sunday, and likely will be repeated this weekend.
Vote Democrat
That’s not a check, that’s one petty man responding to another.
I don’t think he thought it was his last book at the time.
Hmm, what did they accomplish during this time?
Really? You got that from 1 hour, 44 minutes that also included his entire public history? He got what, maybe 20 minutes of contemporaneous screen time showing him in his current condition and you can make a medical diagnosis from that?
Since it was filmed after December and released in May – when do you think they shot his portion? January – Feb? For this you believe he was actually a credible threat to “go nuclear if Trump fired Mueller?”
OK then. you do you.
I’m not sure which is more problematic, the inability to forthrightly answer the question “what policies of Trump’s should be ‘checked’ ? by Democrats (who you advocated voting for in the midterms and, one presumes, especially now that McCain can’t do it) or the complete trust in Robert Godfather-to-Best-Buddy-Hillary-Exonerating-Comey’s-Kid Unjustly-Jailed-Six-Innocent-Men-for-Years!! Couldn’t-Pass-a-Job-Interview-so-Got-Appointment-as-Special-Counsel No-Evidence-Ham-Sandwich-Indicting Mueller .
You certainly leave an impression, Gary.
Not when he started, but certainly before he ended the book.
McCain helmed the Defense Authorization bill through Congress. Not a lot happens the second year of a Congressional Session, compared to the first year.
That 20 minutes after the diagnosis confirmed that he was mentally sharp after his diagnosis. Of course, there came a point when he was not.
McCain released a blistering takedown of Trump after Trump’s terrible performance in Helsinki in July 2018.
The evidence is that McCain performed an admirable service of being a check on Trump, at least until July 2018.
That’s one perspective. I think time will show that Helsinki was just a stepping stone.
I hope that I am wrong. I fear that I am right.
Actually that is how I feel about Trump in general. I hope that I am wrong. I believe that I am right.
(I used to represent parents in CPS cases. I stopped doing that after I realized that I was hoping to lose!)
Interesting discussion but… one senator should not have the power to “check” the president, even in a closely divided Senate. The checks and balances are meant to be institutional, not “Mano a Mano.”
And if one senator is doing it out of pique, instead of a clearly stated principle, he is violating his oath and the spirit of being a representative of the people of his state.
Which is abysmal on the face of it. That’s not the role of a senator. There is a collective role of advise and consent for the whole body of the Senate, but not as a grandstanding individual.
So he was as much a check as George Will or even Jonah.
This evidence of delusion and not a check in any way.
In the aftermath of McCain’s passing, I was determined to stay out of it, adhering to the adage of not speaking ill of the dead. But inevitably someone went “there” — that is offering praise to the Senator as a means of going after Mr. Trump. I was excoriated for pointing that out. And I did retreat from the conversation, not due to anything that was said to me, but because it was a work/travel day that kept me offline.
It was my post that set you off. I did not “go after” Trump, I said I was tired of current lectures about character not mattering. I totally understand how that is seen as a metaphor for going after Trump, but the two things are very different. I just logged on from watching primary coverage and listening to left wing talking heads praising ANTIFA for being on the right side of history. I said I felt we had lost something and I still do.
If I’m going to be blamed for going after Trump let me get my money’s worth: I think trying to compare McCain’s character flaws to Trump’s is like comparing a teenage shoplifter to Jeffery Dahmer.
Backwards. Trump has not been part of a corruption investigation where he was involved in illegal actions to defraud investors of savings and loan investments. Trump didn’t derail his own presidential campaign at the eleventh hour so that he could do something to bail out private businesses from the results of their own bad decisions. Trump didn’t vote against repealing obamacare. Trump has not broken any laws that we can discern. His only fault appears to be that he gets things done that he promised he would do. And for this he must be punished, I guess.
I chose not to name names and gave every benefit of the doubt. I stand by the comparison of the two men and suggest you do a little more research. Read about McCain’s encounters with fellow POWs like Col. John Dramesi (USAF), about his rampant insubordination at Annapolis, his recklessness that caused multiple losses of aircraft and diplomatic incidents, the “Key Fess Yacht Club,” his treatment of his first wife who was injured terribly in a car accident, the Keating Five, his very public berating of his wife*, fellow Senators, members of the public… the list goes on and on. He was a nasty piece of work who despaired of the events of 9/11, not because his country had been attacked but because it prevented him from exacting revenge on George W. Bush.
The press loved him because he was a disloyal SOB who would destroy anyone as long as he thought the story made John S. McCain III look good.
Sen. Thad Cochran, who represented Mississippi from 1973 until this April, went on record as saying that McCain was so hotheaded and erratic “the thought of him being president sends a cold chill down my spine.”
*Three reporters heard him call Cindy Samantha Bee’s favorite “C” word during the 1992 campaign. And all because she kidded him about his thinning hair. That’s your “man of character.”
Didn’t Jeffery Dahmer eat a teenage shoplifter …. or maybe they just found a teenage shoplifter in Dahmer’s refrigerator.
(ie: The simile may be a little over the top …. )
I have first hand testimony of how horrible McCain could be to underlings, as in, I know a guy who saw it with his own eyes.
There is lots of testimony on how Trump treats “the little guy” well, though I have none of that first hand.
Both are flawed guys. We can like one more than the other. Saying one is like a serial killer is out of line.
Outstanding. Thank you, EJ.
Sorry for the vitriol. Still like your art work.
And I liked you in the #43 car. (That is you, Richard, isn’t it?)