10/31 Thread on THAT Memorial Service

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Thursday, October 31, 2002 SYMBOLISM: One of my acquaintances here in Provincetown said something arresting yesterday. We're friendly, although he's about as perfect an example of a New York lefty, with Wellstonian touches, that I've ever met. He disagrees with almost everything I say, naturally, was against the war in Afghanistan, let alone Iraq, thinks Bush is a corporate crony cipher, etc. etc. etc. The first thing he brought up when we bumped into each other was the Wellstone memorial service. It really bugged him. He felt the pure partisanship, the jeering and cheering, the fanaticism almost, just after a family has been killed, was about as unseemly a spectacle as anything one could imagine. As I've seen the clips, I can't help but agree. What on earth could they have been thinking? That picture of Clinton and Mondale yucking it up, for example. Sure, there are times at political wakes when such outbursts of hilarity are appropriate. But shouldn't an ex-president and an ex-vice-president be aware of what that would look like in such a context? I have a feeling that the Wellstone rally-cum-memorial-service will shortly become a symbol of something: the pre-eminence of political values over humane ones. This is what a lot of people hate about politics. And you can't blame them. This attitude is not the exclusive province of either party, of course. But one of the reasons Bush is popular, I think, is precisely because he doesn't seem at all times motivated by such values, however much his critics try to prove the contrary. There's a decency there that was sadly lacking Tuesday night. And it's that contrast that so many find instructive.

-- Anonymous, October 31, 2002

Answers

Oct. 30, 2002, 7:14PM Mondale gambit shows Dems' audacity By ROBERT D. NOVAK

The mourning for Paul Wellstone had barely begun last Friday when the coolly crafted plan to return Walter F. Mondale to the Senate after an absence of 26 years was already in place. Its audacity reflects both the hard-edged toughness of today's Democratic Party and the emptiness at its core.

Fritz Mondale, once the symbol of reflexive liberalism that undermined the old Democratic coalition, at age 74 has become an icon. Strategists of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party envisioned a five-day non-campaign in which Mondale would sail into the Senate after Republican candidate Norm Coleman was constrained from saying anything substantive, even though control of the U.S. Senate may be at stake.

Republicans were remorseful over losing the chance at the Senate seat until their own statewide poll showed on Monday morning only a two-percentage point deficit against Mondale for Coleman (who had led Wellstone by two points, according to the same pollster). Polls notwithstanding, Coleman faces an uphill climb in Minnesota. That feeds GOP leadership concerns that their Democratic counterparts are tougher politicians.

Democrats have failed to "nationalize" the midterm elections partly because they, like Republicans, flinched at offering a firm ideological agenda. However, Democrats excel at the "ground game" -- not merely mechanics of getting out the vote but a relentless determination to be elected. The unprecedented candidate substitution of 78-year-old former Sen. Frank Lautenberg to save New Jersey's Senate seat is the best example, but Mondale's candidacy comes close.

DFL chieftains immediately decided on Mondale, and quickly talked him into it. "I wonder whether there is such a dearth of new material that we have to recycle these old men," one veteran Democratic national operative told me. There was one other possibility: Alan Page, the 57-year-old former Notre Dame and Minnesota Vikings football star who has been an associate justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court since 1993. A law-and-order liberal, Page has led the state Democratic ticket in recent elections. According to Minnesota sources, he was eager to seek the Senate seat. But the DFL apparently did not want to risk running the African-American Page in an overwhelmingly Caucasian state, and Page was swiftly discouraged.

Page might have required a campaign, and that is not what the DFL wanted. The eulogies for Sen. Wellstone were mixed with panegyrics for his designated successor. "It's a wonderful tribute to Paul Wellstone's memory," said Sen. Joseph Lieberman, "that somebody of the stature and principle of Mondale will carry the torch to Election Day and into the Senate." Amid this Democratic politicking, Republican polling was attacked as disrespectful to Wellstone's memory.

Coleman was warned. "I was very disappointed with the very negative tone that Mr. Coleman took in this race," Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle told reporters Sunday, "far more negative than it had to be, and that wasn't Paul Wellstone's style." Actually, Wellstone was a fierce advocate who gave a lot more than he got in debates with Coleman. Daschle's point was to discourage hard campaigning.

Indeed, Democrats want no campaign at all. Hardly anyone engaged in today's politics remembers it, but campaigning never was Fritz Mondale's long suit. He was selected for all his public offices -- state attorney general, U.S. senator and vice president -- without entering a primary. He ran on his own for the presidency in 1984 in a campaign of unmatched confusion and mistakes.

Mondale's promise of a tax increase in his 1984 acceptance speech was recognized on the convention floor as a monumental gaffe, which caused long-term damage to his party. In the Senate, he was a liberal ideologue whose views on the most contentious method of school desegregation led him to be called "Mr. Bussing."

Democratic strategists naturally want to minimize Mondale's exposure to Republican criticism. The Wellstone memorial service Tuesday evening was conducted with clear political overtones, and Vice President Dick Cheney's desire to attend it was rebuffed. Just to make sure of the election outcome, the DFL is trying to block absentee voting (usually inclined to the Republicans). These Democrats really are tough guys.

-- Anonymous, October 31, 2002


Many Minnesota Radio Listeners Offended By Wellstone Memorial

By Scott Hogenson CNSNews.com Executive Editor October 30, 2002

(CNSNews.com) - The Tuesday memorial service for former Sen. Paul Wellstone, who was killed Friday in an airplane crash, brought howls from many Minnesotans who contacted their local radio stations after the broadcast of the service.

An estimated 20,000 attended the service at the University of Minnesota Tuesday evening, and thousands more watched and listened to the service, which was broadcast live by some television and radio stations around the state.

Questions about the service were raised when the nature of the three-and-a-half hour event began to take on political overtones, and listeners around the state contacted their local radio stations about the event.

"Some people found it offensive in what was supposed to be a memorial service. Late in the service, it became a rally," said Steve Enck, producer of the WCCO Morning News with Dave Lee.

Enck said the memorial service was broadcast live and without interruption on WCCO, a 50,000-watt clear channel station and Minnesota's largest radio station. According to Enck, listeners began calling the radio station Tuesday evening.

"There was a fairly even split," among listeners, he said. "Some callers felt that the memorial service became a partisan, I'm going to say, Democratic rally."

Even though WCCO does not routinely broadcast listener phone calls during its morning show, Enck said the station broke with traditional programming Wednesday morning.

"This is not a call-in show. This is not your open-line type program," he said. "The reason we took the listener calls is because we got so much reaction (Tuesday) evening and (Wednesday) morning from listeners, most of whom were very upset with the memorial service," said Enck, who's worked at WCCO for 18 years.

The listener response was little different in St. Cloud, Minn., where Kelli Gorr works as program director for WJON, which also broadcast the memorial service.

"The first call I got was 'are you airing the Democratic National Convention?'" said Gorr, who operated the broadcast console during the station's broadcast of the service.

"I felt duped. Ultimately, I felt it was a beautiful memorial until it became a political rally," added Gorr, who said that listeners to St. Cloud's oldest news and talk station described their reaction to the memorial service "with words like inappropriate, shocking, a sham."

"These are all words listeners used last night and this morning calling in and wondering why we aired it," she said. "I think those who tuned in were looking for a memorial service and don't feel that's what they got."

Brad Strootman, general manager for a group of four radio stations in Marshall, Minn., said, "the general consensus is that it went too far. It was over the top. It was supposed to be a memorial service and it became a pep rally."

Strootman, who manages radio stations KMHL, KKCK, KARZ and KARL, said none of those stations broadcast the service Tuesday evening "for fear that it would turn into exactly what it did. I worry about equal time issues."

Although none of the stations Strootman manages invited a listener dialog on the memorial service, he said listeners called anyhow. "We've had calls here for the number for the (Republican Senate candidate Norm) Coleman campaign," which Strootman said was given privately to listeners and not on the air.

"They wanted to make a contribution to the Coleman campaign," he said.

Not all radio stations contacted by CNSNews.com experienced such a listener response. Cory Kampschroer, news director for a group of radio stations in Red Wing, Minn., said local listeners were more interested in education issues Wednesday, particularly those surrounding a recent strike by local teachers.

"They really weren't talking about the memorial service per se," he said, adding that the controversy about the teachers' strike "kind of took away from the Wellstone thing."

Minnesota Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim Pawlenty was campaigning in Red Wing Wednesday morning and was interviewed live on KLCH-FM, where Kampschroer said the candidate expressed disappointment with the Wellstone memorial.

"He was disappointed," said Kampschroer. "He went to the service to pay his respects and it turned into a political rally for the Democrats to push their candidate."

But several hundred miles to the north, listeners to WEBC radio in Duluth were more vocal.

"The calls I heard - there were a number of them - they were upset," said Dave Walter, program director for WEBC. "They were disappointed. Some were angry that it turned into what they say was a political rally."

Walter, a 13-year veteran of WEBC who also handles news and sports for three other radio stations in the market, said, "I didn't hear any positive response for what was done, although I did not hear every person that called."

According to Walter, many callers to the Wednesday morning program, which he described as a conservative talk show, "liked the first part of the service," in which Wellstone was eulogized. But as the memorial service changed in tone, so did listener response.

"I would say most of the calls we had this morning were disappointed and upset with that particular type of programming," said Walter.

-- Anonymous, October 31, 2002


Democrats appall with Fritz blitz

October 31, 2002

BY ROBERT NOVAK SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST

The mourning for Paul Wellstone had barely begun last Friday when the coolly crafted plan to return Walter F. Mondale to the Senate after an absence of 26 years was already in place. Its audacity reflects both the hard-edged toughness of today's Democratic Party and the emptiness at its core.

Fritz Mondale, once the symbol of reflexive liberalism that undermined the old Democratic coalition, at age 74 has become an icon. Strategists of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party envisioned a five-day non-campaign in which Mondale would sail into the Senate after Republican candidate Norm Coleman was constrained from saying anything substantive, even though control of the U.S. Senate may be at stake.

Republicans were remorseful over losing the chance at the Senate seat until their own Monday morning statewide poll showed only a 2 percentage point deficit against Mondale for Coleman (who had led Wellstone by 2 points, according to the same pollster). Polls notwithstanding, Coleman faces an uphill climb in Minnesota. That feeds GOP leadership concerns that their Democratic counterparts are tougher politicians.

Democrats have failed to ''nationalize'' the midterm elections partly because they, like Republicans, flinched at offering a firm ideological agenda. However, Democrats excel at the ''ground game''--not merely mechanics of getting out the vote but a relentless determination to be elected. The unprecedented candidate substitution of 78-year-old former Sen. Frank Lautenberg to save New Jersey's Senate seat is the best example, but Mondale's candidacy comes close.

DFL chieftains immediately decided on Mondale and quickly talked him into it.

''I wonder whether there is such a dearth of new material that we have to recycle these old men,'' one veteran Democratic national operative told me.

There was one other possibility: Alan Page, the 57-year-old former Notre Dame and Minnesota Vikings football star who has been an associate justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court since 1993. A law-and-order liberal, Page has led the state Democratic ticket in recent elections. According to Minnesota sources, he was eager to seek the Senate seat. But the DFL apparently did not want to risk running the African-American Page in an overwhelmingly caucasian state, and Page was swiftly discouraged.

Page might have required a campaign, and that is not what the DFL wanted. The eulogies for Wellstone were mixed with panegyrics for his designated successor.

''It's a wonderful tribute to Paul Wellstone's memory,'' said Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.), ''that somebody of the stature and principle of Mondale will carry the torch to Election Day and into the Senate.''

Amid this Democratic politicking, Republican polling was attacked as disrespectful to Wellstone's memory.

Coleman was warned. ''I was very disappointed with the very negative tone that Mr. Coleman took in this race,'' Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle told reporters Sunday, ''Far more negative than it had to be, and that wasn't Paul Wellstone's style.''

Actually, Wellstone was a fierce advocate who gave a lot more than he got in debates with Coleman. Daschle's point was to discourage hard campaigning.

Indeed, Democrats want no campaign at all. Hardly anyone engaged in today's politics remembers it, but campaigning never was Fritz Mondale's long suit. He was selected for all his public offices-- state attorney general, U.S. senator and vice president--without entering a primary. He ran on his own for the presidency in 1984 in a campaign of unmatched confusion and mistakes. As a former vice president, he nearly lost the nomination for president and ended up carrying only Minnesota and the District of Columbia in the general election.

Democratic strategists naturally want to minimize Mondale's exposure to Republican criticism. The Wellstone memorial service Tuesday evening was conducted with clear political overtones, and Vice President Dick Cheney's desire to attend it was rebuffed. Just to make sure of the election outcome, the DFL is trying to block absentee voting (usually inclined to the Republicans). These Democrats really are tough guys.

-- Anonymous, October 31, 2002


Analysis: Partisan memorial aids GOP

Eric Black Star Tribune Published Oct. 31, 2002

By delivering a partisan harangue at what was supposed to be a relatively nonpolitical memorial service, Paul Wellstone's friend and campaign treasurer Rick Kahn gave Minnesota Republicans an opening they sorely needed, analysts who are following the campaign agreed Wednesday.

Whatever strategy Republicans adopt for the final six days of the Senate race, they won't be ripped for politicking too soon after the tragic death of Wellstone, his wife and daughter and five others, the analysts said.

"It changes it back into a Senate race, instead of a weeklong funeral procession to the ballot box," said Jennifer Duffy, who covers Senate races for the Washington-based Cook Political Report.

None of the analysts thought Kahn's blunder had turned the race around. But all agreed it was inappropriate and -- assuming Kahn intended to improve former Vice President Walter Mondale's chances on Election Day -- likely to backfire.

Here's how they reacted to key questions about the race:

• Who's ahead? Mondale holds the stronger hand, the analysts said. Adam Graham-Silverman, who covers Minnesota races for Congressional Quarterly, said CQ is changing its rating from "no clear favorite" to "leans Democratic."

The reason for the upgrade in the Democrats' chances is that "Mondale is something of an icon in Minnesota politics" who will continue to benefit from a Wellstone sympathy vote, Graham-Silverman said.

Republican Norm Coleman, meanwhile, has to try to reinvent both his political persona -- he can't afford to look like he is attacking Mondale -- and the central theme of his campaign.

Coleman's former slogan, "Bringing people together to get things done," was constructed to take advantage of the argument that Wellstone was extreme and uncompromising, Graham-Silverman said.

That theme has less power against Mondale, whose image as a more establishment figure and whose track record during his Senate career suggest he also knows how to compromise and get bills passed.

Carleton College political scientist Steven Schier said Coleman has trouble overcoming his own negatives, whether against Wellstone or Mondale. "Norm's poll numbers [in the race] have never been above 45 percent, and you wonder if he'll ever get above it," Schier said.

But Duffy said the race is definitely not over. The Cook Report still rates it as one of 10 "toss-up" Senate races nationwide, at least in part based on the result of the Missouri Senate race two years ago.

In Missouri, Democratic Senate nominee Mel Carnahan also died in a plane crash shortly before the election. His name remained on the ballot, and his widow, Jean Carnahan, was lined up to be appointed in case he won, circumstances that seem likely to produce even more of a sympathy vote than the Wellstone-Mondale case, Duffy said. But the race ended up being decided by just two percentage points.

Duffy also cited Tennessee, where Republican Lamar Alexander, a former governor, presidential candidate and U.S. secretary of education, is running for the Senate. He has Mondale-like credentials, and many assumed he would win "without breaking sweat," Duffy said. But the campaign has demonstrated that a lot of voters aren't familiar with anything but his name. The Cook Report still favors Alexander to win, "but he's had to break sweat, big time."

"Writing Coleman off right now is premature," Duffy said. "Every hour of the next five days is going to be meaningful."

• Mondale's strategy: University of Minnesota political scientist Larry Jacobs predicted Mondale likely will go into "the four-corner offense," a basketball strategy in which a team that's ahead tries to run out the clock without risking any shots.

"After accepting the nomination, I expect to see him cloak himself in the Wellstone mantle, show himself to the voters enough to reassure them that he has all his faculties, and then take a very slow bus tour around the state," Jacobs said.

But Schier said Mondale's advisers realize that this isn't a landslide. "He's going to have to reintroduce himself, come out with a positive message, lay out his positions on the issues, and engage on them." He expects Mondale to accept one or more debates.

• Coleman's strategy: It's risky to resume politics as usual in such a climate, Duffy said, but the lesson of the Carnahan-John Ashcroft race is that if you do nothing, you will lose. The analysts agreed that Coleman and the Minnesota Republicans will not adopt a do-nothing approach. They've already said as much, and Coleman was back on the airwaves today with a new low-key ad.

Even that ad, which doesn't mention Mondale, indicates Coleman is trying to contrast himself with his new opponent. When Coleman says: "I've traveled around the state two years listening," he hopes viewers will note that Mondale has not.

Stuart Rothenberg of the Washington-based Rothenberg Political Report, which also lists the race as a toss-up, said Republicans will "try to be comparative without being too harsh or negative."

Most of the contrasts, he said, will be "between a hard-working, energetic Republican who can serve the state for 20 years, and a Democrat who, whatever his achievements, is more suited to the 1970s."

Jacobs said the Republicans will adopt an "inside-outside strategy," where Coleman only hints at the attacks on Mondale, while others from the party or from outside groups will "drive the same attacks in more deeply and explicitly."

Schier said that, thanks to the opening created by Tuesday night's event, "what Norm needs to do, and I assume will do, is move this very quickly into normal campaign mode, sharpening differences, creating contrasts and debating. The question is whether it can make any difference."

-- Anonymous, October 31, 2002


There were more but I got tired of reading and posting them.

-- Anonymous, October 31, 2002


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