Five years later

Paul Wellstone died five years ago today. Ezra Klein has written a wonderful piece in remembrance:

Wellstone's populism was not an affectation, or a political posture. It was laced into the fabric of his personality. It's what made him different than other politicians. His measuring stick was not the poll numbers, not the editorial pages, not the political prognosticators, not the Sunday shows -- it was the farmers, the students, the seniors, the people. His fealty to them explains his frequent lonesomeness in the Senate. When the people are your judges, you can stand against the Iraq War in an election year, you can lose votes 99-1. You can fail to pass legislation, because you know the compromise would fail your constituents. "Politics is not about power," he would say. "Politics is not about money. Politics is not about winning for the sake of winning. Politics is about the improvement of people's lives. It's about advancing the cause of peace and justice in our country and the world. Politics is about doing well for the people."
[...]
It's easier to be a liberal today, to be a progressive, to be proud. But there was a time when it wasn't. When liberalism in defense of peace was mocked, and moderation in service of imperialism was praised. In those days, it was hard to be a liberal. It must have been hard to be Paul Wellstone. He never showed it, though. He liked to quote Marcia Timmel. "I'm so small and the darkness is so great," she said. "We must light a candle," Wellstone would reply. He was ours. Would that he was here to enjoy the dawn.

My one and only encounter with Wellstone took place my sophomore year at Georgetown, when I met him at an event on campus and told him how much I'd loved the ads he'd used in his 1990 campaign. Next thing I knew he was asking me where I was from, what I was studying, how college was going, why they called the political science department the government department, what Pennsylvania was like, and how he'd almost gone to Lehigh but decided he wasn't into engineering. I'm sure there were more influential, more important, and more interesting people there, but I don't think he'd have paid one of them any more -- or any less -- attention and interest than he gave to a 19-year-old college kid. I have met a fair number of politicians in my life. Wellstone was the best of them.

1987 all over again.

We just spent a lovely weekend in Duluth at a charming bed and breakfast with a name like something out of I Know Where I'm Going. But the important thing is that, at least in upper Minnesota, it's apparently 1987 again, if the big hair, blue eyeshadow, denim jackets, and footless tights are any indication. I suppose it's also possible that the 80s are simply making their way south after migrating to Canada in the mid-1990s, though.

#99

We voted early this morning; at 7:35 I was the 99th person to turn in a ballot; that suggests, based on an utterly unscientific with our 2004 voting experience, somewhat lighter turnout this year. There are many things about life in Minnesota that I find trying or irritating, but I'm very, very glad to live in a state that has clean elections and counts everyone's votes.

I realized my predictions post didn't make any calls about the final partisan breakdown in Congress. I'm going to say the Democrats get to 49 seats in the Senate and take a majority in the House with at least 228 seats.