Home About Chat Users Issues Party Candidates Polling Firms Media News Polls Calendar Key Races United States President Senate House Governors International

New User Account
"A comprehensive, collaborative elections resource." 
Email: Password:

  Remembering Paul Wellstone
NEWS DETAILS
Parent(s) Candidate 
ContributorCOSDem 
Last EditedCOSDem  Oct 25, 2012 10:34pm
Logged 0
CategoryEditorial
News DateFriday, October 26, 2012 04:00:00 AM UTC0:0
DescriptionTen years ago today, en route to a campaign event less than two weeks before Election Day 2002, Sen. Paul Wellstone’s plane crashed, killing the senator, his wife Sheila, daughter Marcia, three campaign staffers, and two pilots. A decade later, there is a void in the Senate that still has not been filled. It is as though we are suffering from phantom limb syndrome. Whenever an issue of moral urgency, an issue of conscience, comes before the Senate, I still expect to see Paul holding forth on the floor, chopping the air with his hands, speaking with his special passion, urging us to do the right thing.

With good reason, Paul was respected as the conscience of the Senate. His last major vote, in the midst of a hard-fought reelection campaign, was in opposition to the resolution later used by President George W. Bush as authority to invade Iraq. It is a measure of his political courage that he cast that vote knowing it could mean his defeat. Instead, even Minnesotans who differed with him respected his principled stand.
Share
ArticleRead Full Article

NEWS
Date Category Headline Article Contributor

DISCUSSION