(Daily Caller News Foundation)—Not so long ago (2002), distraught Minnesota Democrats famously transformed a memorial service for Senator Paul Wellstone (killed along with his wife, daughter and three campaign staffer in a plane crash) into a partisan campaign rally.
One lowlight of the day was the specter of Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott being booed while entering the service while well-known Democrat attendees were cheered. But that wasn’t the half of it: Wellstone’s campaign treasurer turned his eulogy for the beloved senator into a signal call to elect a Democrat to take his place, ([to] “redeem the sacrifice of his life if you help us win this election for Paul Wellstone.”)
A mourning public made known its collective displeasure with the spectacle through a barrage of negative reviews on television, radio and the newspapers – this being the pre-social media dark ages.
The historic nature of the self-inflicted wound would come to light days later when the voters of the reliably blue state rebuffed favorite son and former Vice President Walter Mondale in favor of upstart Republican Norm Coleman.
At the time, the issue of Senate judicial selections was all the…
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