Subject: RE: BS: Garrison Keillor on Norm Coleman
From:
GUEST
Date: 22 Nov 02 - 12:38 PM
I did mean belie, it's my usage that is wrong.
What I was trying to suggest (unsuccessfully, as you point out) with using the word belie as shorthand was, many Minnesotans reacted to Rick Kahn in an emotionally dishonest way. Without exception, when I spoke to people who actually saw the entire event, their initial reaction was that they had been "had". Upon questioning them further about it though, also without exception, they all came to the conclusion that their initial reaction was, in fact, a dishonest one. When I asked "Did you see the way Rick Kahn was physically shaking, how his eyes were continually tearing up?" they all said yes, they had noticed that. I mention this, because it was part of what made us so uncomfortable WATCHING Rick Kahn from the moment he got up to the podium. I would then ask people, "What did you think when you heard Rick Kahn calling out Republicans by name?" Every person said "I thought he was crazy." I would then ask them "Well, if his nervousness and grief was so visually obvious, and his remarks were obviously crazy, why did you decide that his motivations were political, rather than the twisted results of his grief?"
That one left people speechless. Once we got to that point, people would settle down, and start to talk about how hard the whole thing was to watch--not just Rick Kahn and the memorial service. The whole Republican build up to the memorial was a whole lot of very tasteless campaigning--as was obvious when even Arne Carlson publicly stepped in to rebuke the party. How tasteless Norm Coleman's "public grieving" seems in retrospect. How vicious Sara Janacek and whats his name--the state Republican party chair guy, were. How they started running against Mondale the same day the Wellstones were killed (see TPT "Almanac" program).
People of all political persuasions, even those that hated Wellstone's politics, seemed to have been touched at a pretty deep level by the untimely deaths. All Minnesotans could agree on a few certain things about Wellstone. You knew he was a man who stood by his values and beliefs, had the courage of his convictions, and didn't follow the money--we knew his vote couldn't be bought by special interests. Anyone who worked with him or against him could tell you that.
But by jumping on the Republican jingoist bandwagon, which falsely represented Rick Kahn's remarks as something other than what they were (ie politically motivated, rather than a genuine overwrought outpouring of grief), we had allowed ourselves to be duped. Now, many people are living with angry guilt pangs about having fallen for the Republican "windfall" of Wellstone's death. Some, like Keillor, are apparently feeling haunted by not speaking out and denouncing the dishonesty of the Republicans, and the talking head bobbers (ie Shelby, Majors, Meyers) who had obviously aligned themselves with the Republican witch hunt strategy.
What I mean by witch hunt is this. The Republicans were going to come out of that memorial attacking the Democrats no matter what, because the Wellstone family had chosen to make the public memorial fit and honored the public image of their father. It was no surprise to anyone that they chose to have a memorial that would allow thousands of people to attend. You just can't fit 25,000+ people in a church, temple, or synagogue. So, considering the nature of the space (a basketball arena), everyone knew it would come off like a rally, because the intent was an informal public celebration of the Wellstone's public lives, not a mournful, somber, formal Republican-looking church service.
Everyone knew that there would be plenty of political sorts of things happening, just as the KSTP news director pointed out. So, we knew that the Republicans would cry foul, because they were crying foul the minute the plane crashed, in an attempt to garner sympathy for them not being able to continue campaigning as usual in the wake of the crash. I certainly agree with Keillor's use of the word evil in his article. What the Republicans did in the wake of the Wellstone crash WAS EVIL. Which is why so many Minnesotans felt defeated themselves, by the senate election, at what our society has come to. We didn't even allow ourselves to bury the dead in a fitting manner that honored the wishes of the Wellstone family. That is the bottom line. The Wellstone sons had every right to plan that memorial as a "political rally" sort of tribute to their parents, without the Republicans using it as a weapon against the Democrats. That was just too despicable. Too evil. And they didn't even wait for the funerals to end--they went on the attack while the Wellstones and the Kahns were at yet another Wellstone funeral on Wednesday.
So--the self-righteous indignation did belie people's deeper feelings about the days between the death of the Wellstones and the election. Perhaps there is a better word choice to be made--give me a hint as to what it is, will you? I've got a bad head cold, so the right words aren't coming quickly to me here! I hope I have, without too much running on, explained why in the moment I thought it was an accurate shorthand to use.
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sj
