Ventura: 'Democrats Should Hang Their Heads in Shame'
NewsMax.com
Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2002
Independent Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, disgusted by Democrats' disgraceful behavior at the partisan "memorial service" for Sen. Paul Wellstone, threatened today to name an independent rather than a Dem to complete the late senator's term.
Observing that Democrats had exploited the service as a political rally and booed Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, Ventura fumed, "I think the Democrats should hang their heads in shame."
"Ventura had said he favored a replacement from Wellstone's party, but that was before he walked out of Tuesday night's memorial service," the Associated Press reported today.
'Violated'
"I feel used. I feel violated and duped over the fact that turned into nothing more than a political rally," said the governor, who was also booed at the Democrats' rally/"service."
So it's a good thing that intolerant, mean-spirited Democrats banned the vice president of the United States.
Ventura was particularly sickened by a speech by Wellstone's friend Rick Kahn, who urged Republicans to concede the election. Actual quote: "Can we not set aside for just one week all of the partisan bickering, all of the political strategy and all of the nastiness?" Translation: We'll continue to be nasty, but no one else can.
Ventura said today on a radio show: "I wanted to hear the sons. But Rick Kahn's, I found his so offensive to me as an independent, or to anyone who is not necessarily going to vote for Senator Wellstone who still respects him and came to pay their respects. It drove the first lady to tears.
"I will try to find an independent" until a new senator is elected.
'We Will Win! We Will Win! We Will Win!'
Even more nauseating than Kahn was the late senator's son Mark Wellstone screaming to the frenzied, roaring, foot-stomping crowd of leftists: "We will win! We will win! We will win!"
As Fox News Channel noted today, Democrat "mourners" such as Bill and Sen. Hillary Clinton, Sen. Teddy Kennedy, Senate plurality leader Tom Daschle and Senate wannabe Walter Mondale were seen laughing, grinning and whooping it up at the "memorial service."
Note that it takes an independent such as Ventura to confront the Democrats about their sleazy behavior. As usual, Republican politicians smile and whimper as the Dems launch one nasty attack after another. Lott, of course, was not on camera today firing back for the outrageous way the Democrats treated him. That sort of timidity is one reason he went from Senate majority leader to minority leader.
Ventura has frequently shown himself to be no friend of Republicans or conservatives - witness, for example, his chumminess with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and his hypocritical bias against religious people even as he sucks up to atheists. That the governor is even considering penalizing the Democrats for their viciousness shows just how low they have stooped in their desperate bid to maintain their narrow stranglehold on the U.S. Senate.
The chairman of Minnesota's Republican Party today asked TV and radio stations for equal time to counter the Democrats' four-hour campaign rally. The media will, of course, deny that request.
'Blatant Political Rally'
A growing backlash over the partisan "memorial service" could sabotage the Democrats' attempt to foist Walter Mondale on the public. According to the leftist Minneapolis Star Tribune, "many irate viewers and Republican leaders said the gathering for U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone and five others degenerated at times into a blatant political rally."
"What a complete, total, absolute sham," said Vin Weber, a former U.S. representative from Minnesota. "The DFL clearly intends to exploit Wellstone's memory totally, completely and shamelessly for political gain. To them, Wellstone's death, apparently, was just another campaign event."
Republican political analyst and lobbyist Sarah Janecek, who attended the event, told the Star Tribune: "I lost a lot of respect for my fellow Democrats. I think it's so overboard that it will backfire."
Even one of the Democrats' defenders had this fascinating comment: "I don't know that it was excessively partisan, but it was partisan in the tradition of Paul Wellstone," said Lilly Goren, professor of political science at the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul.
Wellstone's campaign manager, Jeff Blodgett, said, "It probably would have been best not to get into politics and elections in the way it was done."
He claimed he "was as surprised as anyone" when the even shifted from tearful eulogies into a political rally.
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DNCEditor's note:
Now we know: "Why the Left Hates America"