Paul Wellstone Iraq War Speech

[jefferson_dem]

Run time: 04:45 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BF2CLRZLK2E   Posted on YouTube: April 18, 2007 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: October 12, 2007 By DU Member: jefferson_dem Views on DU: 864

 
The Mondale thread got me thinking about how much we miss the principled voice of the Great Senator Wellstone...:patriot:

Here's a slice of the WaPo article which followed his speech --

For Wellstone, Iraq Vote Is Risk But Not a Choice
Principles May Be Costly in November

by Helen Dewar

Anti-war activists were conducting a three-day sit-in at his St. Paul office, even as his Republican challenger was pummeling him as wobbly on national security. For Sen. Paul D. Wellstone (D-Minn.), the Iraq war resolution before Congress presented a lose-lose proposition likely to anger voters he needs in his tight reelection bid.

But to Wellstone there was never really much of a choice.

The 58-year-old professor-turned-senator had built a political career on standing by his convictions, which included a decided preference for international cooperation and diplomacy over war. He was not about to abandon them now, he said on a recent morning, as he put the finishing touches on a speech he was about to deliver opposing the resolution that would authorize President Bush to use force against Iraq, with or without a United Nations mandate.

"Just putting it in self-interest terms, how would I have had the enthusiasm and the fight if I had actually cast a vote I didn't believe in?" he asked. "I couldn't do that."

<SNIP>

Coleman, a former mayor of St. Paul, has been describing Wellstone for months as an extremist on national security, accusing him of voting repeatedly to cut military spending and criticizing his vote against the Persian Gulf War in 1991. Coleman has aligned himself with Bush on Iraq and endorsed the resolution to give Bush the authority to use military forces "as he determined to be necessary and appropriate" to enforce U.N. decrees in Iraq. But he has also been careful not to sound too bellicose or political when discussing Iraq.

Within hours after Wellstone's speech opposing the resolution last week, Coleman, in Washington for a fundraiser, held a news conference to challenge the decision. "This is not a question of the senator's patriotism. It is a question of his judgment," he said later in a conference call with Minnesota reporters, which some Democrats complained privately was a way of raising doubts about both. Nor was he willing to leave Wellstone unchallenged on conscience. Supporting the president on Iraq was a "matter of conscience," too, he said.

<SNIP>

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/1009-05.htm

[Cha]

1. Thanks for this jefferson_dem..

I said on another thread that Mondale supporting hillary was like a 180 degree from supporting Wellstone and someone challenged me to back that up(or something like that)..

Oh man, such a difference!.. and Wellstone(our courageous hero had to pass on in a freakin' small airplane crash with 1/2 his family and friends:()

We could have used him all these all these years..but, I know..It Is What It Is.

[cynthia]

2. oh how I miss him

Coleman and even Klobuchar don't hold a candle to him. His integrity was singular, perhaps it is hard for people to hold onto that when they get to Washington, but Paul did, for 12 years. So if he could, there is no reason we shouldn't expect it from everyone we send.

Be careful what you say and do. If you dare to speak truth to power, don't fly in small airplanes.

Be safe, everyone.

[The Doctor.]

3. At least not the ones they expect you to be in.

We lost three key people that stood in the way of The Agenda to mysterious plane crashes.

- We lost Wellstone

- We lost Carnahan

- We lost the only man on the planet who could have announced his candidacy and walked into the White House in 2001.

[MnFats]

4. Amy K. will do just fine....though there'll never be another Paul..

...about the first guy I wanted to vote "for" rather than voting to keep some lunatic out of office...

Gawd, don't we need him now...

[mogster]

5. Thatks for posting this

I hadn't seen/heard Wellstone speak before. All my impression of him came from the DU and other boards after he was killed.

Obviously presidental material. He reminds me of JFK, punctuated and clear - so sure of his own values.

[go west young man]

6. A great speech from a great human being.