Former Minnesota Sen. Eugene J. McCarthy has died ... More to come.

[dionysus]

Breaking msnbc.com... :(

[TallahasseeGrannie]

1. A true man of peace

May he rest in it.

[hlthe2b]

2. RIP

thank you for your honorable service to democracy...

[Wilber_Stool]

3. Shit.

Rest in Peace.

[deadparrot]

4. link here...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051210/ap_on_go_co/obit_mccarthy

RIP.

[Journeyman]

5. Not really much more to come, is there? . . .

those were heady days, a renewed sense of optimism and hope in a nation darkened by tragedy, war, and dismay. . . thanks for the optimism, Gene. . . would that it had been different. . .

[JoFerret]

44. Agreed

A true American patriot

[NMDemDist2]

6. nominated, may he rest in peace n/t

[regnaD kciN]

7. R.I.P., Gene...

You were a unique individual, a poet and scholar who found himself in the U. S. Senate. You could be inspiring and maddening in turn, but your place in history is assured. Who knows how long Vietnam may have lasted had you not had the courage to speak out against it, and then challenge your party's sitting President over it?

[stevedeshazer]

8. Link to obituary here

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/12/10/mccarthy.obit.ap.ap/index.html

A true patriot and a great man.

[Mz Pip]

9. Gene Mc Carthy was a driving force

in the forming of my politics.

Here's to you Senator. Thank you for your inspiration and your vision.

Mz Pip
:dem:

[baby_bear]

19. Me too, Mz Pip

I was 14-15 yrs old during the year of 1968. My parents were ardent McCarthy fans and workers in his campaign. It was the only thing they had in common by that point. After the August Democratic convention (debacle) in Chicago, they split up.

I will always remember the big white stick-em daisies with blue centers proclaiming McCarthy for President on our car windows. I had them on my school binders, too.

What a great man. What a loss that he never was president. What a loss now, for humanity.

b_b

[bemildred]

10. Damn. I had the honor to vote for him once, long ago, nt

[Greeby]

11. Sucks being a young'un in 2005

That I never knew of men like him :patriot: :cry:

[Ken Burch]

73. Well, look at it this way, Greeby

Maybe you're young enough to grow up to BE like him.
(BTW, if you're looking to inform yourself about Gene, don't read the Dominic Sandbrook bio that just came out. It's basically a hatchet job from a "Scoop Jackson Democrat" point of view.)

And, you can honor Gene McCarthy by helping us stop the war.

[The empressof all]

12. Deep Sadness

He was a driving force in the shaping of my political viewpoints. Although I was too young to vote for him, I volunteered for his campaign and met him several times. In my eyes he was everything a politician should be. He was my hero as a teenager. He is my hero today. I am truly heartbroken.

[BrklynLiberal]

13. He was a genuinely good human being.

r.i.p.

[oasis]

14. REST IN PEACE

O8) O8) O8) O8) O8) O8) O8) O8)

[mzmolly]

15. Minnesota has had many great "eggs" and McCarthy was one of the best.

RIP Senator.

[SW FL Dem]

16. What a loss. May he rest in peace N/t

[msanthrope]

17. RIP, Senator, you were one of the good guys... n/t

[ThoughtCriminal]

18. "Get Clean With Gene"

A slogan I can remember.

It's going to take a super-tanker load of super strength cleaner for us to be clean again.

RIP to a Hero
:toast:

[wellst0nev0ter]

20. May He Never Face Crows On Telephone Lines Ever Again

he was prescient of the complete media whoredom we know and love today. Used to say the media were like a bunch of crows that follows one other crow from one telephone line to the next.

[Martin Eden]

21. the PEACE Candidate is dead

Long live the PEACE Candidate!

[laruemtt]

22. my very first vote ever was for

McCarthy in '72. hard to believe he is gone. ;(

[Buck Turgidson]

49. Me too!

I had the McCarthy for President on my guitar case. I could not accept that he lost the election.

[aquart]

23. I shook his hand in the Felt Forum.

That was his first rally there. He took our hands and looked into our eyes, and I understood what they meant by charisma. I never worked harder for any candidate.

The second rally was after RFK's assassination. McCarthy was ringed by Secret Service and no one could get near him. That was when I realized he no longer had a chance. A camera caught me at that second, and the picture appeared in a local paper telling people that a volunteer was exhausted. That wasn't it.

And I did wonder, around that time, if RFK hadn't entered the race to take what McCarthy had earned, if RFK wouldn't still be alive. But I guess the course of the nation was set.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

24. Rest in peace, Senator

I wish you or RFK could have gotten the nomination in 1968.

[tishaLA]

25. RIP Sen. McCarthy

[karlrschneider]

26. One of the truly good guys. Just got home & caught it on the news.

RIP, Gene.

[musette_sf]

27. In the immortal words of Tim Benzedrine,

(the "Tom Bombadil" elder of "Bored Of The Rings"):

"Oh uncool bush! Unloose this passle
Of furry cats that you hassle!
Tho' by speed my brain's destroyed,
I'm not half this paranoid!
So cease this bummer, down the freak-out,
Let caps and joints cause brains to leak out!
These cats are groovy here among us,
So leave 'em be, you up-tight fungus!
Tim, Tim Benzedrine!
Hash! Boo! Valvoline!
Clean! Clean! Clean for Gene!
First, second, neutral, park,
Hie thee hence, you leafy narc!"

"uncool bush" and "Clean for Gene" so prescient now...

farewell brother... '68 was a crappy year for Dems but you shone through it all.

[AlamoDemoc]

28. Gee..This is a terrible news day

First I heard the death of Richard Pryor and now Sen. McCarthy...

It is a sad and melonchony weekend all around!!! :cry:

[MADem]

29. Another notification, here

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/13378397.htm

I'll tell ya, his passing brings up a lot of memories and long-buried feelings. That guy challenged the system. Who remembers "Be clean for Gene?"

Those were the days, my friends....

[TaleWgnDg]

30. AP, Boston Globe . . .

Former (U.S.) Senator Eugene McCarthy, 89, dies

Sen. Eugene McCarthy, D-Minn., is shown in this March 12, 1968
file photo as he talks to campaign workers and the press at his
Bedford, N.H. campaign headquarters. McCarthy, 89, died in his
sleep Saturday, Dec. 10, 2005 in Washington. (AP Photo/ File)

By Frederic J. Frommer, Associated Press Writer | December 10, 2005

WASHINGTON --Former Minnesota Sen. Eugene J. McCarthy, whose insurgent campaign toppled a sitting president in 1968 and forced the Democratic Party to take seriously his message against the Vietnam War, died Saturday. He was 89.

McCarthy died in his sleep at assisted living home in the Georgetown neighborhood where he had lived for the past few years, said his son, Michael.

Eugene McCarthy challenged President Lyndon B. Johnson for the 1968 Democratic nomination during growing debate over the Vietnam War. The challenge led to Johnson's withdrawal from the race.

The former college professor, who ran for president five times in all, was in some ways an atypical politician, a man with a witty, erudite speaking style who wrote poetry in his spare time and was the author of several books.

"He was thoughtful and he was principled and he was compassionate and he had a good sense of humor," his son said.

. . . more at . . . http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/12/10/former_sen_eugene_mccarthy_89_dies/
.

May Senator McCarthy rest in peace. A good man. A great American statesman. He will be missed. I was there in Bedford, New Hampshire and on the campaign trail with both Robert F. Kennedy then Eugene McCarthy. McCarthy stayed at my home during the campaign. I remember it well. What times were in 1968, all over America!

A job well-done, Senator. Very well done.

.

[MagickMuffin]

31. RIP Senator McCarthy

excerpt Gene McCarthy:

"It was a tragic year for the Democratic Party and for responsible politics, in a way," McCarthy said in a 1988 interview.

"There were already forces at work that might have torn the party apart anyway — the growing women's movement, the growing demands for greater racial equality, an inability to incorporate all the demands of a new generation.

"But in 1968, the party became a kind of unrelated bloc of factions ... each refusing accommodation with another, each wanting control at the expense of all the others."

Although he supported the Korean War, McCarthy said he opposed the Vietnam War because "as it went on, you could tell the people running it didn't know what was going on."

[IndianaGreen]

32. Gene was my man... long before Bobby Kennedy jumped in the fray

I don't think Gene ever had Presidential ambitions, but he was motivated by his horror at the war unfolding in Vietnam. He was decent and good!

[RFKHumphreyObama]

33. Rest in peace Senator McCarthy and thank you for your service to

America and the world in your crusade against the Vietnam War and against poverty, injustice and racial inequality. May you rest in peace and may your legacy endure for generations to come

[rodeodance]

55. we have many Dems like him right now---he set a good example.

[melody]

34. My RW father hated him, which is all the credentials he needs for heaven

...if there is one, which I doubt, but...

Gene was one of the last real progressive politicians in this country. So dies another
great man while imperiled tyrants rule.

[melody]

75. Okay - he supported Reagan? So died another of my heroes

Oh, well.

[zann725]

35. Great sadness. At 21, I cast my first Prez "vote" for him; and credit him

with making me believe in, and appreciate TRUE Dem values.

May his gentle, kind spirit rest in peace.

[Vidar]

36. You're going to a better place, Gene.

[PlanetBev]

37. I marched with him in 1972

at a rally and march at Cal State University, Northridge.

The world grew even darker today.

[flamingyouth]

38. Very sorry to hear this

My parents were big supporters of him. :(

[Rich Hunt]

39. RIP n/t

[ismnotwasm]

40. Hell of a man

RIP Senator. Wonder what the world would be like if he had ever made it to the white house?

[DrZeeLit]

41. Thank you for your service, Mr. McCarthy.

I hope he knew how much he meant to so many of us.
He was a rare man of courage, conviction, and grace.

Bless him. He blessed us with his vigilence to the truth.

[dw]

42. I spent a wonderful day with him during his '76 campaign.

I had the privilege of chauffeuring him around Oregon, from Portland down to Corvallis, where he gave a speech to an overflow audience of students at OSU, to Salem to meet with the former and then-current governors of the state, and then back to Portland for a speech at the Hilton.

All throughout the day, Gene told insightful and hilarious stories about life in the Senate and on the campaign trail. He had a wonderfully droll sense of humor, and at one point along the way we both just howled for minutes on end as we theorized the ideal platform if an Oregonian were ever to run for president.

The highlight of the trip was a conversation McCarthy had with the Republican ex-governor, Tom McCall. Two accomplished warriors from the old school, with pure and fully acknowledged respect for each other, discussing how a coalition government might be pulled together if McCarthy were to win the election.

Almost thirty years ago, and I remember the day as if it were yesterday. I’m afraid we’ll never see his like again in our lifetimes.

[BlueManDude]

47. Thanks dw.

[cantstandbush]

43. RIP. My hero! n/t

[MnFats]

45. My favorite Eugene McCarthy story...

...in the spring of 1970, when antiwar demonstrations were peaking all over the country, thousands of Minnesotans from Twin Cities campuses spilled onto the freeways and stopped business as usual all over the cities. It was making a mess all over and the cops and "officialdom" were desperate to clear the freeways. Somebody came up with a great idea! Get McCarthy to speak to them! Surely they'll listen when HE asks them to clear the freeways so everyone could get badk to their routines...
McCarthy agreed. He went out there, told the students that what they were doing was courageous and wonderful and right, and that they should keep on doing what they were doing.

You could hear Homer Simpson-like "Du-OH!" in offices all over the Twin Cities.

[BlueManDude]

46. Thanks Fats. RIP Clean Gene.

[Voltaire99]

64. In many ways, the anti-Hillary, the anti-Kerry.

That wonderful story illustrates the difference between a lion and mice.

Being Gene McCarthy took tremendous courage, and ultimately cost him any connection to the party which spurned his brilliance and spirit.

Being for corporations and for war take no courage whatever from his sorry successors today.

Let us find a new McCarthy, and drive out the mice.

[katinmn]

69. LOL! Great story.

:hug:

[Lefty48197]

48. Rest Eugene. Rest.

Thy weary toil is 'oer. We mourn the loss, but hope to meet, where parting is no more.

[satya]

50. He made a Dem out of me, a 10yr old kid in '68, born into a GOP family.

I was devastated when HHH got the nom.

RIP, Sen. McCarthy -- you spoke truth to power. Even a 10yr old kid could see that we had no business fighting the Vietnam War. I would like to think that we've learned from our mistakes, but the war profiteers have no reason to stop waging wars fought by other peoples' children.

We need to give them a reason, in your memory.

My deepest sympathies to his friends and family; what an honor it must have been to know him.

[La_Fourmi_Rouge]

51. There were giants in those days...

There's a lump in my throat and a pain in my heart. Gene meant alot to us hippie kids, us peaceniks who knew he spoke our hearts and minds.

He was a statesman the likes of which we will not see again soon - our Democratic representatives are cut from a coarser cloth, these days...

Damn, I realize now how much I have missed him, and Paul.

I'm gonna have a shot of JD and shoot up some streetsigns...

[lucca]

52. A wonderful man.

Rest in peace dear Senator Eugene j. McCarthy.
You led a true, honest, kind, and decent life .
I honor you.

Eugene J. McCarthy quote:

"One thing about a pig, he thinks he's warm if his nose is warm. I saw a bunch of pigs one time that had frozen together in a rosette, each one's nose tucked under the rump of the one in front. We have a lot of pigs in politics."

[Zorro]

53. May he RIP

but I have a contrarian viewpoint regarding his 1968 candidacy and its impact on this country.

His quixotic quest for the nomination and his later sniping from the sidelines seriously affected Humphrey's candidacy, allowing Nixon to win the election. Humphrey was liberal's liberal and he would have changed the course of the war, and had the momentum in the waning days to overtake Nixon had the election been held a week or two later. However, Humphrey couldn't get any initial traction after winning the nomination because McCarthy remained in a snit and encouraged his supporters to likewise not embrace the Democratic nominee.

HIs later crack about voting for Reagan instead of Carter in the 1980 election was another demonstration of his smug dillettantism. So although he is to be applauded for having the courage to force the issue of the war into the public political arena, he also encouraged Democrats to engage in the circular firing squad approach to debate, and made a unique and significant contribution that has enabled Republicans to infest the White House since that time.

[Ken Burch]

74. If I may respectfully take a contrarian view to YOUR contrarian view

It would have been good if the Democrats had been united in '68. However, the "snit" you describe McCarthy as being in was fully justified. The McCarthy, RFK-loyalist and McGovern delegates were treated horribly in Chicago. The party only allowed a ONE HOUR debate on the Vietnam plank, with Johnson forcing Humphrey to support the war even though Humphrey knew this would ensure his defeat. McCarthy, Kennedyite and McGovern delegates were physically bullied in the convention hall and the streets, some were arrested, and on the last night of the convention, the Chicago police raided McCarthy's campaign headquarters as a farewell party was being held for McCarthy workers. Several guests at the party were beaten. Humphrey said nothing about that.

The Humphrey campaign and LBJ did everything they possibly could to alienate Peace Democrats that year. It seems likely to me that Johnson, having been forced to withdraw, wanted to make sure that no other Democrat, including Humphrey, would replace him. LBJ' "snit" helped usher in a Second Republican Ascendancy, one that still has not truly come to an end.

[montana_hazeleyes]

54. R.I.P

Senator McCarthy and thank you. People like you are a blessing and keep us going when we need it the most. You will never br forgotten.:patriot: :-( :grouphug:

[rodeodance]

56. he was still kicking a few years back-look what he said about Bush/Irag.

.....On his 85th birthday in 2001, McCarthy told the Star Tribune of Minneapolis that
President Bush was an amateur and said he could not even bear to watch his inauguration.

In an interview a month before the 2003 invasion of
Iraq, McCarthy compared the Bush administration with the characters in the William Golding novel "Lord of the Flies," in which a group of boys stranded on an island turn to savagery.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

57. didn't he go rightwing and endorse reagan in 1980?

or am i remembering wrong?

[RFKHumphreyObama]

58. It's not altogether clear whether he did endorse Reagan or not

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_McCarthy

But I don't think he went right wing -he came out and spoke out against * and he endorsed Nader in 2000 and was involved in progressive causes after Reagan's presidency as well

[katinmn]

70. He wasn't a party man.

Saw little difference between D and R parties, a view many are beginning to share.

[Douglas Carpenter]

59. well sort of in a way...

He had a brief flirtation with libertarianism and he believed in 1980 that Reagan would balance the budget.

He did not repeat this mistake in 1984. He explained in an interview in 84 that he thought the two things that can wreck a nation were an intractable war or an out-of-control deficit. I wonder what he would think now that we have both.

Still for today, I tip my hat to Gene McCarthy for his contribution to the anti-war effort and for helping in bringing real life to grassroots democracy.

[chieftain]

60. I got clean for Gene. Among all the Democrats, he was the

one willing to risk it all and take on LBJ on the Vietnam War. He and the army of peace activists brought down an arrogant and wrong-headed regime, only to see it replaced by one that was exponentially worse. No matter the result, McCarthy was the first to tap into the wellspring of anti war sentiment. We are now waiting for Democrats who can join John Murtha in speaking the plain truth that the time has come to get out of Iraq not some hazy time in an undefined future but right now. Before we have to fight our way out.
Thank you Gene for being a leader of conscience, integrity and moral courage.Which one of our Democratic contenders for '08 will step up to the challenge of Iraq the way that Mccarthy did on Vietnam?

[lovuian]

61. Wonderful American Hero

May he be at Peace...

[Odin2005]

62. Oh Dear. RIP Gene.

:cry:

[Voltaire99]

63. One of the good ones.

And one of the last Democrats to inspire.

The downfall of both America and the Democratic Party can be traced to their spurning the path set by this great man.

RIP, Eugene.

[maddezmom]

65. RIP

:(

[The Sushi Bandit]

66. I voted for him ...

may he rest in PEACE!

[carolinayellowdog]

67. My first hero

1967 was a year of awakening to the hopelessness of the Vietnam War for tens of millions of Americans, and McCarthy was the face and voice of that awakening. RIP.

[katinmn]

68. A fighter for justice till the end!

Seems like just a few weeks ago I heard him on the radio talking about the mess we're in.

Good-bye Clean Gene. I know right now your fellow Minnesotans around the world are saluting you! :patriot:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051211/ap_on_go_co/obit_mccarthy;_ylt=Apa0u_e_zuPFfSYM2EI5IB.yFz4D;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--

snip
In an interview a month before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, McCarthy compared the Bush administration with the characters in the William Golding novel "Lord of the Flies," in which a group of boys stranded on an island turn to savagery.

"The bullies are running it," McCarthy said. "Bush is bullying everything."

McCarthy was an advocate for a third-party movement, arguing there was no real difference between Republicans and Democrats.

[tomg]

71. I heard him speak in 68 when

I was 18. There was such hope and optimism. Best way to honor him and all of them is to keep up the fight.

[mike_c]

72. oh damn, RIP Gene....

Damn.