Shades of a ‘Memorial Service’ for Paul Wellstone: Tawdry Oratory at the Funeral for Coretta Scott King

 by Gary Larson  

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The vulgarity of using public funerals as political instruments is not lost on ordinary citizens of the Republic.

Shrill partisan rhetoric at a funeral service? Maybe in some Third World “uncivilized” country, but not in the United States. Alas, it’s quite true. Hollow men, whom T.S. Eliot termed hopelessly locked between idea and reality, had no decency at the funeral of Coretta Scott King.� No honor. And no qualms, ironically, about spewing strictly political, hate-inducing, race-card oratory at the funeral of a peace-loving civil rights leader’s wife.

Oh, the tawdry shame of it all.� Shows no class.�

Is their sinister view of an Amerika [sic] so indisputably “right” that their ideology must be shoved down throats of funeral-goers and TV viewers? Or in this New Age of partisan politics, is it a case of “anything goes?”

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s early-on mentor, Chicago radical Saul Alinsky (1909-67) issued his “rules” of “activism.” One, “ends justify any means,” was the keystone of his activist philosophy. "All politics is personal," he suggested.� Camp follower Rodham the Impressionable, part of that counterculture ‘60s, listened well. “Ridicule,” taught firebrand Alinsky, “even if irrational, is a potent weapon.” Indeed.

So the budding activists of “Hill’s” generation, off to save the world, made politics personal, intensely so. They internalized politics, making it their own, to use it as a club. Their aims, you see, are all-important.� If necessary — see “…ends justify” above — they will vilify,� and demonize, to have their way. Later, as First Lady, "Hill" would use the word “destroy“ to apply to all who dared to disagree with her vision of Social Justice, or whatever it is they do seek. Power, perhaps?�

Is it not surprising, then, the Alinksy-inspired leitmotif pops up now at rituals to memorialize the dead. No venue is sacrosanct. All is fair game when the self-anointed world-saviors carry the solitary message of redemption for their view of oppressive “Amerika.”

(In a scary way, this mind-set is akin to radical Middle East mullahs in their mosques on a bad day. Viewing politics as religion, perhaps they aim also to stir the base? To gain power? Just a passing thought.)

Politics was king at the “memorial service” for Senator Paul Wellstone, his wife, two staff members and their pilots, in October 2002. Their aircraft crashed in my native northern Minnesota on the eve of a mid-term elections. I disagreed with Wellstone’s tax-crazy “progressive” politics, but I surreptitiously wept at the tragedy.

At first, outpourings of sympathy at the “service” were endearing, entirely fitting, engendering a sort of closure. Then it turned ugly. A time-honored ritual to honor the dead was transformed, unabashedly, into a rah-rah political rally. Watching it on TV, I recall vividly its partisan ferocity.

Grim shadows of the ‘02 rally are found, again, in the funeral for Corretta Scott King, a beloved woman, wife of the slain civil rights leader.� Methinks neither she nor her celebrated, peace-loving husband would stand for such a sordid show of raw politics at funerals.

After heartfelt tribute from family and friends, same as in the Wellstone “service,“ suddenly it got political. Presumed adults who should know better, especially after the Wellstone gaffe, goofed. Clueless, they transformed a ritual into a mockery of good sense, civility and ritual decorum.

Watching the Wellstone event turn ugly, I recoiled in horror. It made me nearly physically sick. Political cheap shots, the partisan hubris, the rank intolerance that would label all who disagree as vile, somehow evil, was sickening. In response, ordinary folks — non-political wonks — did turn off and tune out. (To his credit, then-Gov. Ventura and his wife walked out in protest. The Walter Mondales stayed on, cheering the action. Their mistake.)

Come the mid-term election, Minnesota voters, tired of partisan cheap shots, rejected Wellstone’s would-be successor, the 74-year old ex-vice president , for the Senate seat. They chose mild-mannered St. Paul Mayor Norm Coleman for “Wellstone’s seat.” Take that, political perfidy!

Here’s an excerpt — okay, it’s self-plagiarism — from my column at the time about the funeral follies of ‘02:

Sen. Wellstone was feisty, but not hurtful. Likely he would disapprove of the political warfare being fashioned artfully around his death — exploiting it, quite shamelessly, by party wonks [hacks] gone bonkers . . .

Sen. Tom Daschle (D-SD), in town presumably to mourn, exhorts local folks to "Win It for Paul!" No question, a tragic death is eerily exploited. Shades of Knute Rockne, except it's "Win It for Paul" instead of "for the Gipp," strictly grade B movie fare.

One hyped-up orator [a Wellstone aide] at the faux "memorial service" claims "unspeakable tragedy" will strike the US of A if a mere Republican (gulp!) wins the Senate seat. Vilification lives, awaiting a target.

Wait! It appears, as if on cue. TV monitors in the huge auditorium flash the image of Sen. Trent Lott, [then] GOP minority leader, there simply to pay tribute to a fellow senator. A chorus of boos erupts. Boorish behavior lives. Not a proud day for American politics…

Later at the stem-winding rally disguised as a memorial service, tub-thumper Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), like a country preacher, urges folks to “vote for Paul, for Paul, for Paul!"

Another incident at the “memorial service” goes unreported, even to this day, except for brief notice on C-Span. (Thank you, C-Span!) I retell it in my post-election column titled “Liberal Orthodoxy Fails in Flyoverland:”

Illustrating the liberal passion is a story the news media did not report (not surprisingly) from the raucous pep rally for a dead senator. A man in a wheelchair came to pay his respects, believing it was a memorial service. Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) was merely booed. But the wheelchair man was booed, then spat upon, a big wad smacking the back his neck. His crime? A campaign button for Norm Coleman, soon ripped off his wheelchair. Ideological hate had left its mark.

Still self-plagiarizing, here’s how I ended my shriek of disgust at the tawdry antics at the Wellstone “service” — and note, it is strikingly analogous to the foolishness on display at the Coretta Scott King funeral:

Intolerance lies in claims of monopoly on social justice. Here’s the formula: Deprecate all who disagree with you. Show ‘em disrespect… Put simply, the lesson from arch-liberals: If you do not share their beliefs — er, their "core values"? — you are like Infidels, hated non-believers. Such intolerance brings shallow, uncivil persons to anger, then to hate. This is the end result of what Reinhold Niebhur called "the frantic orthodoxy of the true believers." Let history show it is self-defeating.

Oratory at the “service” for Wellstone and now, for Mrs. King, reveals a seamy underside of politics. To wit:

Rev. Joseph Lowery in his eulogy attacked the president, sitting on the dais behind him, with a spiteful poem. Fair-minded folks, not hoodwinked by emotive partisanship, can only shake their heads in disbelief. Rev. Lowery’s rendition of a Stevie Wonder song went like this, and reciting it might capture him a seat of honor, same as Michael Moore, at the next Democratic convention, next to Jimmy Carter:

We know now there were no

Weapons of mass destruction.

And we know there were

Weapons of misdirection,

Right down here.

Millions without health insurance.

Poverty abounds. For war, billions,

But no more for the poor?

President Carter used the funeral also to bash, plainly showing he’s lost it. Astonishingly, the ex-president invoked a half-century-old FBI wire-tapping of Martin Luther King, Jr., by J. Edgar Hoover, to rebuke even the Bush administration’s terrorist surveillance. Call this a real stretch.

Like the insufferable Rev. Lowery, Carter was robustly cheered. Especially so when he played the race card, a la the late Johnny Cochran. Carter related his dark, foreboding (and false) supposition about relief going unequally to recent hurricane victims. Call this charge unfair in spades.

But the longest lustiest ovation went to another president. Ah yes, that would be the incomparable, rich pardon-happy, still-adolescent, most parodied president of all time — the impeached on, known philanderer, and now an Arkansas court-certified liar, an accused-but-not-charged rapist. Goes to show who’s the real hero. And who’s at his side? The late Saul Alinsky’s star pupil, now the junior senator from New York. What goes around?

Do liberal Dems get a free pass for boorish behavior at funerals? Likely they do, except in the blogosphere. MSM will not dwell on such vulgarity. Not their style. Not a fit for their “liberal” agenda. But the vulgarity of using public funerals as political instruments is not lost on ordinary citizens of the Republic. Not to be taken in by grief exploited for political gain, they will vote for decency, for fair play. Senator Wellstone’s over-the-top “memorial service” turned pep rally endlessly proves it is not a winning strategy, activist Saul (“ends justify all means”) Alinsky to the contrary.

Politics: General

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