Paul Wellstone: The Life of a Passionate Progressive

1. An Impolitic Politician

1 An Impolitic Politician To take a stand, to be passionate . . . is the politician’s element, and above all the element of the political leader. —Max Weber, “Politics as a Vocation” On the morning of October 25, 2002, Senator Paul Wellstone, a liberal Democrat from Minnesota , was killed in a plane crash along with his wife, daughter, and three campaign aides. Later that day, Wellstone ’s colleague Pete Domenici was called on to comment. In an interview on CNN, the conservative Republican immediately broke down in tears and was unable to continue . Several hours later, Domenici regained his composure and agreed to another interview. He paid tribute to a senator with whom he had worked to pass legislation that would help people suffering from mental illness, a disease that had affected members of both men’s families. The DomeniciWellstone mental health parity bill, which would require insurers to treat mental illnesses the same as physical illnesses , had passed the Senate but was held up in the House. Addressing the dead Wellstone, Domenici promised to carry on: “You can bet, my friend, it will be started up this coming year and it will be named exclusively for you.”1 Throughout that day, members of the political community from the full ideological spectrum paid tribute to Wellstone . “Today, the nation lost its most passionate advocate for fairness and justice for all,” said Senator Ted Kennedy. “It was impossible not to like Paul Wellstone,” said Senator Patrick Leahy. Paul Krugman of the New York Times wrote, “In an age of fake populists, Paul Wellstone was the real thing.” The conservative National Review editorialized, “Even right-wingers must admit that he would have made a good neighbor.” Conservative pundit Robert Novak admiringly observed that “the ‹ghting left-wing professor from Carleton College had not altered his views, but he did soften his style.” Even the Senate’s most fervent conservative , Jesse Helms, joined the chorus: “He was my friend and I was his.”2 Wellstone was not always so admired. Few new senators have landed in Washington with such an emphatic thud as Paul Wellstone. A day before being sworn into of‹ce, he pulled his green bus in front of the Dirksen Senate Of‹ce Building, a violation in the perk-conscious capital. The following day, he held a news conference at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, urging President George H. W. Bush not to attack Iraq. The move enraged veterans’ groups and angered many Minnesotans who objected to his using the memorial to make a political statement . The day after that, he ignored a Senate tradition by refusing to be escorted by Minnesota’s other senator to the well of the Senate chamber for his swearing-in ceremony. PAUL WELLSTONE 2 He declined to be accompanied by his colleague, Republican senator Dave Durenberger, and instead asked former vice president and Minnesota senator Walter Mondale to escort him. That afternoon, Vice President Dan Quayle presided over a public swearing-in ceremony attended by reporters. As television cameras and reporters recorded the scene, Wellstone surprised Quayle by handing him an audiotape of a Minnesota town meeting in which Minnesotans express strong antiwar sentiments. In just a few days, Wellstone discovered that his abrasive style would undermine his effectiveness in Washington. The media, Wellstone’s political opponents, and even many of his allies castigated the new senator. The headlines were devastating: “A Star’s Crash Landing,” “Blunt Minnesota Senator Pays Price,” “Wellstone Faces Fallout of Anti-War Offensive,” “Under the Senate’s Skin.”3 Barely into his ‹rst term, his approval rating in Minnesota was under 35 percent. Bumper stickers cropped up throughout the state: “Don’t blame me: I voted for Wellstone, but I didn’t think he could win.” Mistrusted and disliked by many of his colleagues and alienated from Minnesotans back home, Wellstone was confronted with a crisis. “With the people of Minnesota not listening to him and the Washington bureaucrats dismissing him, Paul Wellstone is facing the possibility of becoming a six-year irrelevancy,” said one political consultant.4 Wellstone had been warned before not to alienate his colleagues or to set overly ambitious goals. Prior to taking of‹ce, he met with Mondale, who told him that his success depended on his ability to choose his ‹ghts carefully and to produce results for his constituents. Wellstone’s new colleagues Paul Simon of Illinois and Howard Metzenbaum of Ohio gave...