A Delicate Balance
November 2, 2002

Minnesota is in mourning. Memorial services are being held around the state for Senator Paul Wellstone, his wife Sheila, his daughter Marcia, and three campaign staffers, all killed in a plane crash on October 25th. Spontaneous outpourings of grief are still commonplace at churches, on street corners, and at work. It's fitting that winter has come early to this northern prairie state—the air chill, the sky gray and drizzling.

Of course, the brawl for Minnesota's Senate seat has already resumed—and turned nasty. A public wake at the University of Minnesota attended by some 20,000 people turned from a moving remembrance of the dead into a tacky political rally for power—so much for bipartisan healing and grief. But it's hardly surprising the gloves are off since the balance of political power in the Senate is at stake. The Democratic-Farmer-Labor standard-bearer is former Vice President Walter Mondale.

Wellstone was by far the Senate's most left-wing member. He delighted in taking on his conservative Senate colleagues and his firebrand populism energized his liberal followers. Wellstone constantly worried about how to protect the "little feller" from the domestic consequences of globalization. But his opposition to free trade and government intervention kept many of his solutions on the political margins.

In death, as in life, Wellstone’s appeal rests on the strong sense that he never compromised ideological principle for political expediency. Frankly, Wellstone was a nag. What made him special was that at least he nagged with conviction, compassion, and humor. Some people voted for him simply because they admired him, despite his policies and politics. It's good to remember that integrity is bipartisan at a time when the jockeying for power in Washington is fierce and the outcome in many campaigns too close to call.

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