I've been all tied in knots about the party I want to see emerge and the DLC-influenced centrist one that I fear is sticking around. It's the "Clinton referendum" question, the worry that Obama's hope-and-unity just means more unproductive compromise. And all this at a time when the Republican discourse is kind of insane (one odd tax proposal after another, somehow following Bin Laden to the gates of Hell and shooting him there) and Paul Krugman has convincingly argued for a new constructive embrace of partisan-ism.

Anyway, this Thursday, Glenn Hurowitz is reading from his just-published book, Fear and Courage in the Democratic Party, at Robin's Bookstore.

The canned summary:

Coming just in time for election season, Fear and Courage in the Democratic Party chronicles the extraordinary stories of five politicians and activists: three "progressive heroes" who exhibited rare political courage - and through it found unexpected political success, and two "spineless weasels" who embraced The Politics of Fear and rode it to ultimate failure.

The book reveals how Senator Paul Wellstone used his courage to overcome a quirky personality, an occasionally hysterical style and, most of all, an ideology considerably to the left of his constituents, eventually becoming a national hero.

It tells the dramatic story of how the same foundations and corporations that engineered the right-wing takeover of the Republican Party used junk political science to move Democrats to the right as well. Hurowitz shows how the legacy of Bill Clinton, widely proclaimed his generation's greatest political talent, will actually burden the Democratic Party and the progressive movement for decades to come.

A work of astounding insight, Fear and Courage in the Democratic Party promises to transform political discourse in 2008.

Given how some people feel about Paul Wellstone around here, I thought maybe some of you would like to come out.

Robin's Bookstore, 108 S. 13th Street (13th and Sansom)
Thursday, January 17 at 6 pm

Five years ago today, my personal hero, Senator Paul Wellstone, died in a plane crash in rural Minnesota. For those who don't know him, Wellstone was rabble-rousing unbashedly liberal Senator from Minnesota. At a time when liberal was a dirty word, Wellstone wore the badge proudly. At a time when it was inconveinent to talk about the have and have nots, and when a Democratic President was proposing repulsive acts like the Bankruptcy Bill, Wellstone did everything he could to put his five foot, five inch body in the way.

And, in the middle of the 2002 campaign, when his opponent was running attack ads that featured pictures of Bin Laden next to him, Wellstone stood up when others backed down, and voted against the Iraq War. He was told it would lose him the election. Instead, his poll numbers went up.

Wellstone was a hero for me because besides almost always doing the right thing, he united such amazingly diverse constituencies. From Iron Workers, to College Kids, to Farmers, to Somali Immigrants, Wellstone had them all.

When he died, I wrote a piece for my college paper:

Do I know how my parents felt? I think I am beginning to grasp the feeling of having someone you could honestly, unabashedly and emotionally embrace as a true leader, and then watch as he is taken from you before his time. Is this what it felt like for them, when Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. were taken out in a matter of months? Paul Wellstone was a hero, pure and simple. He was not murdered, we assume, like those hallowed 1960's leaders, but he came to his death too soon, nonetheless. He was a Senator and true politician for only 12 years. A political baby.

....

We talk about the rarity of voting your conscience, yet for Wellstone it was a shock the few times he did not (Patriot Act, Defense of Marriage Act). He refused to accept the Senate tradition of not actually recording votes when its known a bill will pass easily. Twice there were times before an election when the political wisdom said he could not vote his conscience, but he did anyway by voting against Welfare Reform in 1996 and against the impending war in Iraq a few weeks ago. Each time, he was the only vulnerable Senator to do so. He knew that he was defined by doing what was right.

Even as I write this, watching old interviews with him, he energizes me. One of the few times I met him was at a political fundraiser in Philly right around college selection time. During the mandatory handshakes my dad mentioned to him that I was looking at Carleton and Macalester. He turned as he was walking away and mentioned we should talk colleges, which is what every politician would say. The difference is that ten minutes later he found me, and he, Sheila Wellstone and I discussed where I should go. He asked me what I was looking for in a school, where I was from, what I wanted to do in life. He recommended Macalester. The man was at a fundraiser to run for President, and took ten minutes of his time to talk to a 17-year-old kid about colleges. Who else would do that?

Paul Wellstone was simply a decent, honest man. He had a wife he loved and who shared his passions. He had a daughter who took a semester off from teaching at a public school to campaign for him, including multiple trips to Macalester. And he had us. True believers. Who replaces him? Who gets the total trust I had in him to do the right thing, the just thing? Do I know how my parents felt?

Rest in peace, Senator Wellstone. Millions of Americans will miss your presence, whether they have heard your name or not.

The reason I am bringing this up is two-fold. The first is simply to pay homage to a man who, outside my own family, taught me more about standing up for my beliefs than just about anyone else. And second, to ask this bigger question:

In a City of 1.5 million people, virtually all Democratic, where is our Paul Wellstone?

John Edwards has captured my attention in the Presidential race for the simple fact that he has put poverty back on the national agenda. (Of course, the media thinks we should instead talk about his hair cut.) I don't think Edwards is a saint by any means, but the simple fact is that so many Democrats are so damn scared to be vocal about poverty, to speak in broad, transformational language, that they do nothing.

Which brings me to Philadelphia, and our current Washington DC Representatives: Bob Casey, Allyson Schwartz, Chaka Fattah, and Bob Brady. Casey is likely to be a one term Senator. A nice guy, a centrist, with one eye on the Governor's seat, and almost no visibility anywhere. Schwartz is pretty bad. When the chips are down, she seems to vote the wrong way, voting for the Patriot Act, version two, and the Bankruptcy Bill. Bob Brady is a decent guy, but is not really the type for soaring rhetoric. The best legacy he could leave us is to dramatically change the way the Philly Democratic Party operates.

Then we have Chaka Fattah. Fattah has done a couple very good things in Congress, like the Core program. His voting record is excellent. And, even in 1994, he stood up to the GOP on things like the destruction of our social safety net. But, in more recent years, we didn't seem to hear much from Fattah. That is, until he ran for Mayor, and started talking about things like ending poverty. Whether you believed in his policies or not, one thing was indisputable: Fattah was challenging us to talk about Poverty, and in doing so seemed more like a national candidate.

Well, now that Chaka is back in DC, how about some more of that? To a fault, no matter the question he was asked in the Mayoral Race, Fattah answered that we needed to end poverty in the City. He was asked about planning, he answered about poverty. He was asked about the environment, he answered about poverty.

Now, in the majority in Congress, and with the potential for increasing visibility, why can't Fattah become our Paul Wellstone? If we are going to end poverty in this Country, we need a lot more than Congressmen who vote the right way. We need hundreds of Paul Wellstones. We need leaders.

In our national delegation, the only one with the ability is Chaka Fattah. The question is, will he step up and lead?