The Only U.S. Senator Who Had Voted Against Bush's War Plans is Dead

Democrat Paul Wellstone had represented the State of Minnesota in the U.S. Senate for 12 years. In the early days of his career as a Senator, he made a name for himself when he voted against the war of George Bush sen. against Iraq.

That he had remained faithful to his pacifism became apparent a few weeks ago when he voted - this time as the only Senator to do so - against the war plans of George Bush jr.

On Friday, 25 October he died, along with his wife Sheila, his daughter Marcia and three assistants, when their small plane crashed.

Although Wellstone's friends in the Democratic Party as well his Republican opponents had warned him that his open resistance to Bush's plans would mean losing his seat in the November Senate elections, Wellstone followed his conscience. His popularity rose virtually over night. He had only been slightly ahead of his Republican counterpart in the polls during the run-up to the elections. After his lonely vote against Bush in the Senate, however, he was able to increase his lead. His re-election seemed a foregone conclusion.

What this incident shows is that the majority of Americans are against the U.S. going it alone in a war against Iraq. What the Wellstone case shows, too, is that criticism of the Bush government and the Republicans is becoming more intense. The first voices which were suspicious of Wellstone's sudden death were raised a few days after the accident. The most detailed comment is probably an article by Michael Niman entitled 'Was Paul Wellstone Murdered?', which was published at AlterNet.org. The author lists a number of strange incidents in which people who had publicly voiced their opposition have died. One of them is Mel Carnahan, who was the clear favourite of the voters in the run-up to the 2000 Missouri Senate elections, in which he stood against John Ashcroft(!). He died in a plane crash three weeks before the election. John Ashcroft, however, was so unpopular that Carnahan's widow managed to beat Ashcroft.

Source: www.telepolis.de, 31 October 2002