Pacific Views

The Paul Wellstone Seat

On October 25, 2002, the remarkable Paul Wellstone died in a plane crash along with his wife while campaigning for another term as the maverick Senator from the state of Minnesota. When he died, the people of Minnesota mourned. But even more telling, the Senators with whom he interacted every day did too. And people all over the country felt they also had lost their Senator because he was such a strong voice for the people who didn't have adequate representation in our government. He truly was the Senator for the "little people."

Paul Wellstone more than any other Senator was targeted by the Bush administration in the 2002 election because Paul never stopped standing up for what he believed was right even when it was hard. He was the only Senator up for election in 2002 to vote against giving Bush authorization to launch a war on Iraq. His courage, his compassion and his decency made him a special role model for anyone who believes that politics can be something that works for ordinary citizens.

So one of the great tragedies of Paul Wellstone's death is that Minnesota, and the country, got such a scum to sit in Paul Wellstone's seat in the Senate. Norm Coleman has proven to be more than willing to be the hitman for the Bush administration.

What exactly is Norm's legacy today?

• Coleman chairs UN oversight hearings and carries the water of the John Birch Society.
• Coleman smeared Kofi Annan and demanded that he should resign. Why? Because Kofi Annan has a son who had ties to the oil-for-food program. But, Coleman has not proven that Annan was culpable, and he has admitted that the oil-for-food program was greatly distorted by Americans as well.
• Coleman tried to deny Mohamed El Baradei another term at the UN. El Baradei's crime? He didn't back the Bush administration in their claims that Saddam was so dangerous that we had to invade Iraq.
• Then Norm went after that Saddam lover, George Galloway. Of course, Norm found that when he went after Galloway, he had bitten off a bit more than he was ready for. During that hearing Galloway hit back hard at the cowardly Coleman and shut him up:

  "Now, Senator, I gave my heart and soul to oppose the policy that you promoted. I gave my political life's blood to try to stop the mass killing of Iraqis by the sanctions on Iraq which killed one million Iraqis, most of them children, most of them died before they even knew that they were Iraqis, but they died for no other reason other than that they were Iraqis with the misfortune to born at that time. I gave my heart and soul to stop you committing the disaster that you did commit in invading Iraq. And I told the world that your case for the war was a pack of lies."

• Coleman backed John Bolton for the UN long after it was proven that the only reason Bush wanted to put Bolton into the United Nations was so he could destroy it. No lies would be too much.

Coleman represents the Bush administration and finds nothing too obscene in tactics to make him question their actions. Whenever they have a particularly stinky job, they give the task to Norm Coleman and he cheerfully takes it on because being Senator isn't about doing the right thing for the nation. For Norm, it's doing the expedient thing to advance his career.

Today, Norm Coleman added to his legacy by participating in one of the most disgusting and anti-American spectacles we've ever seen. Yes, once more Norm has thrown himself into protecting the liars and smearing honorable statesmen who have given their time and their hearts to making the world better. But Norm, knowing the evil in men's hearts (as he's clearly tapped into his own), is always more than ready to use that knowledge to encourage greater evil. After all, Norm has agreed to lead the defense of Karl Rove, that upstanding and honorable statesman from the Bush administration.

This is the man who has replaced Paul Wellstone, a man who espoused good will to others. Norm Coleman would rather destroy people using lies and smears in order to earn his ribbons in this divisive and toxic administration and with the Republican hate cult. We lost a whole bunch more than we ever knew when Paul died on that bleak October day.

Posted by Mary at July 15, 2005 12:30 AM | US Politics | Technorati links |