Ted Kennedy; Another Wellstone

The use of the death of Ted Kennedy in support of the Democrats and their socialist-style takeover of our healthcare system has been widely noted and decried. It’s crass, at least. Cynical, as well. But it shows us just how desperate the Democrats are to push this monster through and onto the financial shoulders of the American people. The historical pattern is what shows us this.

Few have noted, you see, that this level of cynical crassness this exploitation of the dead, is nothing new to the Democrats.  Do you remember the bald-faced political push at the Paul Wellstone “Funeral”? Well, let me give you a little background. Wellstone was a US Senator from Minnesota, who was in the home stretch of his re-election campaign. A leftist’s dream, Wellstone voted twice against allowing the US to move against Saddam Hussein… not once, but twice, in 1991 and then again in 2002. He was a kind of person though with a personal magnetism that affected those on both sides of the isle in the Senate. He counted Trent Lott, Jesse Helms and Jesse Ventura friends. Anyway, at nearly the end of his last campaign, he died in a plane crash.

So, his supporters, decided to put together a huge memorial service. All the news media were there. And yes, it moved from funeral service to Democrat party pep rally. Reports surfaced that day or such non-Democrat party mourners being booed for merely showing up, much less speaking at the funeral.

Now, oddly, (Or perhaps not so oddly) there’s no footage of this event available on You Tube that I can find… save one, and that one is wrapped in spin by Leftist AL Franken. I guess so long as the event is couched in leftie political spin, it’s OK and YouTube can run it. Otherwise, not so much. Reports from the scene, though suggested that the thing totally morphed into a campaign rally. It was clear the Democrats were desperate at the time, fighting with everything they had, including emotionalism based on a death of one of their own, to win congressional seats. To that effort, the Democrats were completely shameless it it’s partisanship, even to the point of Rick Kahn, who I understand was an associate of Wellstone, urging Republicans to give up their election fight and let Mondale win in the spirit of ‘bipartisanship’. (Thus using a call for bipartisanship as a tool for what can only be labeled the promotion of pure partisanship.) It was at this point, to my memory, that Vin Weber, then an adviser to Coleman, along with most of the reminder of the Republicans, walked out. He was quoted by the Strib as angrily saying:

“What a complete, total, absolute sham”

For so it was. So bad was it that in the postmortem of the election, even the liberal Time Magazine was forced to ask “Did the memorial service for Paul Wellstone cost Democrats the election? “, and conclude:

A backlash against the politically charged service almost certainly helped Norm Coleman beat Walter Mondale for Wellstone’s Minnesota Senate seat. And a private poll by Bill Clinton’s former pollster, Mark Penn, suggests the service backfired on Democrats nationally as well.

So now, we see the same pattern, today, in the Democrat – run Congress, where the Democrats are running almost exactly the same play as they did back in 2002. Apparently, they don’t recall how dearly it cost them last time. Else, they’re so desperate to push this power grab of a ‘healthcare’ bill through that they don’t care, since it’s the only play they have left in their hand.

Or, maybe… just maybe… this kind of political crassness is simply part of what it means to be a Democrat, anymore.

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As I go to press with this, I note Doug Douglass over at American Power Blog:

The Politico‘s got a piece up, “Conservatives Warn of ‘Wellstone Effect’.” But what’s interesting is the pushback against the meme. Leftists are outraged that right-wingers would take issue with their crass exploitation of Edward Kennedy’s death, so they’ve gone on the offensive to smear conservatives.

Well, I guess that was to be expected. The fact was, and remains that the Democrats can’t help themselves on this stuff.