Thursday, June 26, 2008

America Divided Over Whether Paul Wellstone Was Assassinated

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On the one side, there's me and apparently the authors of the book "American Assassination." On the other is everyone I talk to about it, but I've only talked about it with people twice -- Thinking about the Anthrax/Leahy episode stirred it up again. A couple of years ago, I was out with some friends and casually mentioned the assassination of Paul Wellstone. One asked, "Why do you think Senator Wellstone was assassinated?" I was floored! I thought everybody thought Paul Wellstone was assassinated!

So, at dinner tonight with three people, I tried again: "There's this thing I think Americans believe, but no one ever talks about, so I thought I'd ask you if you believed it. Were one or more of Donald Henry Rumsfeld, Richard Bruce Cheney or George Walker Bush complicit in the death of Senator Paul Wellstone?" It's not just that the answer was 'no', the very question seemed unfamiliar to them. I was accused of being a conspiracy theorist! Are not new conspiracies uncovered every day? A simple reciting of the news would make one sound like a conspiracy theorist.

So, Wellstone? Anyone?

3 comments:

Beth said...

Seems perfectly reasonable to me but I tend to blame them for quite a bit. Could you elaborate on the specific motivation in this particular case (other than Wellstone's general viewpoint). What exactly was gained by his death?

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I vaguely remember thinking at the time "that sucks", but not much more.

Maybe the key to getting away with assassination is to do it well before everyone comes around to the utter depth of your corruption.

So what is the case? Would Wellstone really have been that influential? Couldn't the administration just have discredited his wife?

Rionn Fears Malechem said...

Firefox 3, I've got to say, is surprisingly unstable on Ubuntu Hardy Heron. It crashes on me in ways that Firefox 2 never did, and that Opera 9.5 doesn't. In any case, I lost this comment the first time I wrote it, so I'll try to be a little more succinct.

Senator Jim Jeffords delivered to the Democrats majority control of the Senate, and it was the Bush League's firm intent to undo that. They sent Senator Norm Coleman to run against Senator Wellstone to that end. You'll recall how vested they were in denouncing Vice President Walter Mondale when he stepped in to the race.

Paul Wellstone was not only a powerful Democrat, but America's last, best hope for averting war in Iraq. You'll recall that current thinking says that the reason for the war in Iraq was helping the GOP in the 2002 mid-term elections. So, there's your motive. And they definitely had means -- we've seen how involved they became in human intelligence. It's not much of a stretch to think they have a "black bag" team.

But, just like with climate change, I'm not too interested in talking other people into believing this. I'm more of an alarmist denouncer than an informer or a persuader. I'm just surprised that everyone doesn't already believe this.

As far as public perception of the depth of Bush League corruption, somewhere between the executive order keeping presidential papers private forever and Secretary Norton's reversal of the report on impact of oil drilling on caribou breeding in the Alaskan Natural Wildlife Reserve -- 2001 bookends to my personal journey in going from having an open mind to believing Bush 43 was the worst president ever -- I had seen enough.

It could be that the Plame narrative hadn't been worked out yet, but it could also be that not all Democratic senators have unstable, pill popping wives. His wife and daughters were also killed in the plane crash, but I think he was the target. I'll risk another search, even though that's what crashed the browser last time.

Sheila Wellstone was an activist and had been a prospective 2002 gubanatorial candidate, so not really in the Kitty Dukakis mode. The Wellstones death from one perspective seemed to be the Bush League teaching us a lesson in integrity -- that it'll get you killed. And the other Senators learned it. Senator Wellstone died 16 days after being one of 21 senators to vote against the Iraq Resolution. The road to war was then clear.