1/12/11, "Branding the Tucson massacre: “Together We Thrive” in white and blue; Updated: Liveblogging the bizarre pep rally;
Gov. Brewer booed; in sum: right speech, too late, boneheaded venue (WOOT!)" MichelleMalkin.com
A college pep rally took place, sold as a memorial. Similar to what happened at Paul Wellstone's memorial.
- News Reel ^ | 10/4/2010 | Kathy Shaidle
Posted on Monday, October 04, 2010
#5 Memorial Service for Paul Wellstone
Perhaps the shock of progressive Paul Wellstone’s unexpected, tragic death — along with his wife and one child, the two-term Democratic Senator of Minnesota perished in a plane crash in 2002, at age 58 — was what pushed his fellow Democrats over the edge.
That, combined with some kind of mass hysteria, seemed to infect Democratic leaders who eulogized Wellstone at a now-infamous 20,000 strong memorial service at Williams Arena:
It was four years ago when Democrats turned Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone’s funeral into a full-fledged campaign rally. The anger and political message emanating from Wellstone’s funeral backfired on the party — not only in Minnesota, where Democrat Walter Mondale lost to Republican Norm Coleman for U.S. Senate, but also across America.
Coming less than a week before the 2002 midterm elections, the tenor of the Wellstone funeral did more to inspire Republicans than anything else leading up to Election Day. The
- GOP ended up gaining eight seats in the House and picked up two seats in Senate, which Democrats had controlled at the time.
What “tenor” was that? Well, the event was so tacky a pro-wrestler walked out in disgust:
It started with emotional remembrances of Wellstone, a politician loved by liberals and respected by conservatives. But then Rick Kahn, a friend of Wellstone,
- turned the event into a partisan pep rally.
- were cheered wildly.
When Senate GOP Leader Trent Lott and former Republican senator Rod Grams of Minnesota were shown on the TV screen at the service,
- there were boos. (like tonight in Tucson. ed.)
When Mondale was shown on the screen–he didn’t give a speech–he was cheered amid chants of “Fritz, Fritz, Fritz.”
Both Gov. Jesse Ventura, an Independent, and Republicans were furious over the transformation of the memorial service into a highly partisan event. Ventura and his wife walked out, shaking their heads, during Kahn’s speech. “What a complete, total, absolute sham,” Vin Weber, a former House member from Minnesota and now an adviser to Coleman, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. The Democratic party “clearly intends to exploit Wellstone’s memory totally, completely, and shamelessly for political gain.
- To them, Wellstone’s death, apparently, was just another campaign event.”
News Reel ^ | 10/4/2010 | Kathy Shaidle
Posted on Monday, October 04, 2010 on Free Republic
- When are we going to have a memorial for the slaughter of our service people at Ft. Hood due to Army negligence?
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