Mel will be taking over my blog on Labor Day when I depart for Denmark. As you can see he snuck a quick observation in about the difficulting of searching for the truth. As public opinions proliferate from the tens of thousands in letters-to-the-editor to the millions on daily blog entries it may be tempting for the casual reader to lock one’s mind on a single simple idea and freeze out all the conflicting infobabble. Mel is valiantly resisting that temptation.
Mel is still, despite the current drift toward vitriol, a stong believer in a goodness and light. It’s really hard for me the candidate having to please a supporter with such high ideals.
For instance, I wrote a very tough fund-raising letter yesterday. Mel approved of much of its content but implored me to remove a couple gratuitous slaps at Jim Oberstar which Mel thought were demeaning. Mel may have been right but I am a little saltier writer than Mel and it grieved me to make the alterations. Still, I claim to be alarmed by the nastiness in today’s politics so I could hardly ignore Mel’s concern.
I originally finished the letter by mentioning Jim Oberstar’s 32 years in Congress. He’s apparently the longest-serving congressman in Minnesota history now. My last line about the possiblity of his not getting reelected ended “good riddance.”
Mel sent me an email in which he told me that both he and his wife both said, “good riddance” to my “good riddance” once I had edited it out.
As Mel prepares himself to take over Lincolndemocrat with Chris my campaign manager he’s probably thinking to himself, “good riddance.”
Harry, I can write nasty stuff. I would just love to tear into Rumsfeld about comparing the Iraq war to World War II. I might just do that here, but I first want to read his remarks first-hand rather than all the snippets.