But Ventura elected not to throw this fight, so that discussion centers on whether a backlash will set in, causing critical independents to reject the opportunism of the Wellstone managers, or whether the notion got through to these voters that to deplore with integrity the sad circumstances of Sen. Wellstone's retirement requires voting for the substitute candidate.
Walter Mondale instantly inscribed himself as a true believer of the populist mode of the late senator. Actually, Mondale is not that bad. Wellstone scored 100 year after year with the ADA, which would give Trotsky 110. The American Conservative Union gave the deceased a score of 4, and here is an expression of contemporary political polarities.
The last time Fritz Mondale went big time was when he was nominated for president in 1984. What happened recalls the mischievous explanation of Raymond Moley, seasoned political handicapper. In 1956, the grimly populist Estes Kefauver defeated aristocratic quipster Adlai Stevenson in the Minnesota Democratic presidential primary. How could that be? Moley offered an explanation: "Did you ever try to tell a joke in Minneapolis?"
This is no time for Republican candidate Norm Coleman to engage in levity, but somehow, he will have to ask the Minnesota independents to think through what was said at the funeral service. ("We must continue Paul's journey for justice in America. Say 'yes' for Paul Wellstone." "We can redeem the sacrifice of his life if you help us win this election." "If Paul Wellstone's legacy comes to an end, then our spirits will be crushed and we will drown in a river of tears.")
That last was Rick Kahn, a friend and former student of the late senator who was treasurer of his three senatorial campaigns. What would such interpreters of moral obligations have said if Sen. Joe McCarthy had died in an airplane crash?