Posted on: Sunday, October 6, 2002

Speculation dishonors Patsy Mink

By Jerry Burris
Advertiser Editorial Editor

Friday's impressive memorial service for U.S. Rep. Patsy Mink was a welcome — and appropriate — break from the political controversy that has surrounded her untimely death.

And as speaker after speaker pointed out, if there is anyone who should not be the center of a political intrigue, it is Patsy Mink. There wasn't an ounce of political intrigue in Mink's body. With Patsy Mink, what you saw is what you got. There was no hidden agenda, no back story.

That makes it doubly ironic that there is so much intrigue surrounding her passing. On radio talk shows, in letters to the editor and on the street, there is endless speculation about the timing and circumstances of her death.

To be sure, the lack of information about Mink's condition created a vacuum in which conspiracy theories flourish.

But nonetheless, such speculation dishonors Mink and what she stood for. It also requires one to hold the grotesque thought that the Mink family would somehow have been able to put political scheming ahead of their personal grief.

The basic theme of this speculation is that "someone" — usually Democratic party insiders — somehow manipulated the news of her illness and eventual death. Presumably, this manipulation was to provide advantage for the party as it scrambled to ensure it would hold on to the seat Mink held in Congress.

The only problem with all this is it fails to pass the test of common sense.

Let's review what this "conspiracy," if there was one, has accomplished:

Mink passed away just two days after it was too late for the party to name a replacement for her on the general election ballot. If it's a conspiracy you're after, why didn't the party or Mink's family withdraw her name on grounds of ill health before that replacement deadline?

If they had done that, presumably they could have dug up the strongest possible single candidate to represent the Democrats against Republican Bob McDermott in the general election.

Instead, they are left with a campaign in which their party is represented by a memory. And if Mink, posthumously, should win that election, a winner-take-all special election will be held to fill her seat.

It is impossible to imagine how that scenario works to the benefit of party "insiders." Virtually everyone in the state with political ambitions — whether in office or out of it — could throw his or her hat into this race.

The winner of that kind of free-for-all will take it with what could be a small plurality of the total vote cast. If the Republicans are disciplined and put forth a single candidate and if the Democrats field a half-dozen or so high-profile contenders, it is easy to see what might happen.

Mink had ownership of her 2nd District seat for as long as she wanted it. If ever there was a secure Democratic seat in the U.S. House, this was it.

Now, that picture has changed. To believe that it came to this point through some kind of secret Democratic plot is to accept an absurd fantasy and dishonor the family.