Paul no saint.

• Author: Melton, Jeff
• Position: Letters to the Editor - Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone - Letter to the Editor

The plane crash that killed Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone, his wife and daughter, and several others is a horrible tragedy for their surviving family, friends, and acquaintances. Although the desire to focus on the best qualities of someone whose loss one is grieving is understandable, I believe progressive politics are better served by a balanced, critical assessment of Wellstone's political career than by the avalanche of mostly uncritical eulogies over the past month, including your own (Editor's Note, December issue).

By all accounts, Wellstone did a world of good as an activist professor at Carleton College, inspiring many students to incorporate activism and progressive politics into their own lives. Wellstone's shocking election to the Senate in 1990 on a shoestring campaign budget but with a huge pool of enthusiastic campaign volunteers demonstrated the power of grassroots activism in a way most of us had only dreamed about. His outspoken opposition to the Persian Gulf War and support for single-payer health care were also inspiring to many a progressive, including myself.

But Wellstone went to Washington with an agenda of changing the system and the Democratic Party from within. Instead, the system changed him.

During his last term in office, Wellstone voted for wars in Yugoslavia and Afghanistan, the Defense of Marriage Act, the USA Patriot Act, economic sanctions against Iraq, increases in the military budget, and Congressional resolutions exonerating Israel of any blame for...