THREE CHEERS FOR A TRUE BELIEVER:

For Wellstone, Iraq Vote Is Risk But Not a Choice: Principles May Be Costly in November (Helen Dewar, October 9, 2002, Washington Post)

Anti-war activists were conducting a three-day sit-in at his St. Paul office, even as his Republican challenger was pummeling him as wobbly on national security. For Sen. Paul D. Wellstone (D-Minn.), the Iraq war resolution before Congress presented a lose-lose proposition likely to anger voters he needs in his tight reelection bid.

But to Wellstone there was never really much of a choice.

The 58-year-old professor-turned-senator had built a political career on standing by his convictions, which included a decided preference forinternational cooperation and diplomacy over war. He was not about to abandon them now, he said on a recent morning, as he put the finishingtouches on a speech he was about to deliver opposing the resolution that would authorize President Bush to use force against Iraq, with or without aUnited Nations mandate.

"Just putting it in self-interest terms, how would I have had the enthusiasm and the fight if I had actually cast a vote I didn't believe in?" he asked. "Icouldn't do that."

Given a lifetime of far Left opinions, including an internationalist's disdain for American security interests, it seems hard to believe that this vote can hurt Mr. Wellstone much. It's not like people could have been fooled into thinking he'd suddenly become a Jacksonian instead of a Wilsonian. Add to that the fact that his re-election hopes appear uncertain and you've basically got a free vote of conscience here. All he would have done by voting for the war is to give himself something to regret the rest of his life. There was probably still pressure from the party and from political advisors, but the Senator did the right thing, at least in terms of saving his own soul. Would that more Democrats who must believe as he does would vote their true beliefs instead of their instincts for survival. Posted by Orrin Judd at October 9, 2002 8:11 AM