October 28, 2002
A DIFFERENT KIND OF TRIBUTE:
PAUL WELLSTONE (Sam Smith, Progressive Review)THE COVERAGE GIVEN Paul Wellstone's death illustrates that, for the corporate media, the only good progressive is a dead one. The Wellstone stories may well have exceeded the positive coverage given him during his entire political lifetime. If only official Washington could be as sincere every day as it is at a memorial service. [...]Wellstone got 83% in the Progressive Review's scorecard, along with Senators Corzine, Dayton, Kennedy, Reed and Sarbanes. By contrast Russell Feingold and Hillary Clinton got only 67%. But Wellstone was far from perfect. He voted for the obnoxious and falsely named Patriot Act and one Minnesota gay activist who voted for him said after his death, "I would have voted for Wellstone. But, sorry for my disrespect, I personally hated the man. He was grossly, openly homophobic. He was a loud advocate of the Defense of Marriage Act, and gave quotes like "what Sheila and I have is a holy thing, a covenant between each other and with god. I don't believe same sex relationships have that sanctity"
It seems safe to say you haven't heard Mr. Smith's first point put quite that way elsewhere and haven't heard his second much of anywhere.
Posted by Orrin Judd at October 28, 2002 2:28 PM
Let's see... if a Democratic candidate got into the Senate on a close race, and six years later realised his electorate has shifted to his right, what would he do?
He could run to the right himself, like Zell Miller, even changing parties. Or, he could throw out cheap shots at a constituency with next-to-zero visibility in his state, that votes overwhelmingly Democratic anyway. That earns him points on the "morality" issue with no loss in credibility. (Andrew Sullivan will complain, but how many Dish fans are there in Minnesota or Montana, anyway?)
It strikes me that Democrats don't have much that can appeal to social conservatives. They seem to be attempting to fake it the cheap and easy way. Expect more gay-baiting from them in future.
Did you read the quote from Alex Sanders (D, SC) after Rudy Guiliani endorsed Lindsey Graham?
Posted by: oj at October 29, 2002 6:47 AMI was completely unaware of this until now, but I looked it up and on the second point he is accurate. On the first of course, he's really out to lunch.
">http://www.channel4000.com/news/stories/news-960608-112347.html
http://www.mndaily.com/daily/1996/06/14/news/wellst/
I especially liked the comment from the gay activist, who would have voted for someone whom he considered homophobic. Isn't that the rationale the gay left uses to encourage voters to not vote GOP?
Posted by: timekeeper at November 1, 2002 10:29 AM