Friday truly was a sad day for America, when a plane crash took the lives of Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minnesota), his family, campaign aides and flight crew. Not since the fictional character of Jefferson Smith, in Frank Capra’s 1939 classic film “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” has the United States Senate had a member with such integrity, conviction and devotion to serve his constituents.
Wellstone’s death certainly will have international repercussions, as he was locked in a dead-even race for re-election. That Minnesota election is viewed as one of the key races for both political parties as they try to gain control of a closely-divided Senate. However, Wellstone should be remembered in the same way he served his state and nation – with political consequences as merely secondary.
Like the fictional Smith, Wellstone was an outsider with no political background, teaching political science for 21 years at Carleton College in Minnesota. Perhaps that is why he was able, from the time of his stunning 1990 election, to maintain his commitment to his constituents in the middle of a Washington Beltway where the inability to compromise your beliefs is seen as a tragic flaw.
One has to look no farther than the endless, instantaneous praise from all sides of the ideological spectrum to realize the caliber of this man. Wellstone’s integrity was an issue on which the following people agreed: George W. Bush, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, Bill Clinton, Jesse Helms, Ted Kennedy and Jesse Jackson.
Immediately after his death, Bush called Wellstone “a man of deep convictions,” Annan characterized him as “a profoundly decent man” and Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) dubbed him “the soul of the Senate.”
Wellstone’s reputation was well-earned over a 12 year senatorial career that many times found him fighting passionately — most often for the poor, sick and veterans — with little or no support behind him. Even before he was elected, he actively championed the rights of working people, picketing with striking Hormel meat workers and protesting at a bank that had foreclosed on the property of local farmers.
His commitment to voting with his heart and head, disregarding political consequences, was never more evident than in his recent vote against the resolution giving President Bush the go-ahead in Iraq. Wellstone was the only Democrat in a close race to do so.
Amazingly, this vote, which less courageous Democrats shunned as political suicide, simply reinforced Wellstone’s reputation as a true public servant surrounded by self-serving officeholders looking out for their own political interest. Norm Coleman, Wellstone’s challenger, said “I’ve got to wonder whether Iraq hurt him – it seems to have mobilized his base.”
Wellstone’s death was tragic, but what also saddens me is that I had never heard of him until after he was gone. A true hero, someone who attempts to apply to reality the idealistic creeds of America, of the little guy, the underdog, of standing up for what you believe – such a person is deserving of praise and support long before his time on earth is over.
The most moving, and telling, description of Wellstone came from Senator Phil Gramm (R-Texas), who said “Paul Wellstone was a man of conviction, who never swayed from his beliefs even when he was fighting a lonely battle.” I only can hope Wellstone’s life, and death, will serve as inspiration for the rest of our leaders to be people of conviction, people who put politics second, and people who never sway from their beliefs, even while fighting lonely battles.