Well-stone Clan "ain't nothin' to fuck with."

So I just recently found out that Mat Witemyre, Dean Alumnus has a blog. Dutifully I posted it to the right (with all the other DFA alum blogs). Went over to his spot and started to read. Lots of political commentary, far more than I can churn out on this humble little effort. However...I also read his post about Walter Mondale. Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I am also a Wellstone For Senate alum. I loved, honored, respected and admired Paul Wellstone. Walter Mondale stepped into the breach and fought his ass off for Paul and for each of us on the campaign. Mondale (though he did look a bit like a sea turtle) was generous, brilliant, passionate (as passionate as staid Norwegians get) and would have made an incredible Senator. This all makes Mat's post about Mondale a bit off message in my mind. General rule for me...don't fuck with Paul's memory, legacy or those of us on the campaign. I'm not an angry person. But do not call Walter Mondale a dick, or a cotchety jerk--he carried the flag for WFS. Show some damn respect. Just saying, Well-stone clan ain't nothing to fuck with.

In comparing John Kerry to Walter Mondale, Mat says the following: "In the interests of full disclosure, I was three at the time he was running for president. I didn't follow the election that closely. However, I did watch with much interest the way he singlehandedly destroyed any chance to salvage the horrible tragedy of Paul Wellstone's death in 2002. I've talked to a lot of people from Minnesota in my political organizing days so far. They've all said how great a guy Mondale is, and all the good things that he has done for progressive causes and the people of Minnesota. Yeah, but he was a giant dick in the debates against Norm Coleman. It was amazing how out of touch, and just plain mean he seemed after such a tragedy. If he had simply said that he was committed to continuing Paul Wellstone's legacy, and that he didn't want to make this a partisan election, he would have cleaned house. Al Franken is right though, a lot of the problem was caused by the media portrayal of the Wellstone memorial and the spin from Republicans. But, you can't ignore the fact that Mondale was simply an unlikeable, crotchety old jerk..

I said it before, and here it is again: Well-stone clan "ain't nothin' to fuck with" (with apologies to RZA).

So I wrote to Mat (again, this is all civil, because I love DFAers like I love WFS)
"Mondale would not have won by simply "carrying on the legacy." In fact our polling suggested otherwise. Did you watch Norm Coleman's commercials, read his speeches, take phone calls? If so you might have heard that his (NC's) approach was to weep for paul and say that he'd earned the right to this race. He wasn't coming in at the last second. And the media was beginning to question if WM was too old. Being feisty and vibrant was key to undercutting that notion. I take it your post dated April 1st, was simply an April Fools Joke....right?"

Mat's response: "Good to hear from you. So, other than the Mondale stuff, what do you think? I'm not going to say anything else about Mondale, you Minnesotans get way to touchy. I did see NC doing that stuff, Mondale was just a bad choice in general. The only thing I saw him in was the debate. So, that's all I'm going by. Anyways, good to hear from you."

A fair response. I don't know that I'm "to (sic) touchy." Though I do like being thought of as a Minnesotan (the plan is working). I guess I just feel like Mondale was a good choice. He'd filled the role with distinction, he was not seen as an opportunist (ie, he wasn't capitalizing on Paul's death), he was wildly popular. He is brilliant. He's served honorably, and is dramatically to the left of nearly everyone else in the Senate...Oh and just for all the anti-Mondale folks out there, here's a story from 1990. In 1990 Paul Wellstone bucked years of Senate tradition by having Walter Mondale walk him down the aisle and "present" him to the US Senate. Usually this role was filled by the Senior Senator (Grams) in the state. Paul didn't like the Senior senator, and the man he thought best typified and exemplified the role of Minnesota Senator was Walter Mondale. So, if Mondale was good enough for Paul, he was damn sure good enough for me.