Apparently Fritz Mondale will replace Paul Wellstone as candidate for Minnesota senator. So we'll have him and Frank Lautenberg, both in their 70's. After watching a profile of Strom Thurmond on 60 Minutes, I wondered if the Democrats had decided to imitate the Republicans by nominating candidates with one foot in the grave.


The glow of warmth surrounding the untimely death of Paul Wellstone has cooled quickly in the Minnesota winter. It was reported today that the Democrats are outraged that the Norm Coleman, the Republican running for Wellstone's seat, spoke on camera to Karl Cameron of Fox News saying that he was suspending campaigning. They think he was just trying to get his face on television. Apparently Wellstone was such a saint that it is an insult to his memory to mention that he was in a tough campaign when he died. I hope Minnesotans will be as turned off as I was over this snit. Wellstone was an honest and principled man, but he didn't really represent the broad majority of Minnesotans' views, intent as he was on his own agenda and his sense that he only understood truth, justice and the American way.