Joe Conason is a columnist for the New York Observer and
Salon and author of Big Lies: The Right-Wing Propaganda Machine
and How It Distorts the Truth (St. Martin's).
Bush's "compassionate conservatism" is a deft--and dishonest--strategy.
When Paul Wellstone perished in a plane crash along with his wife, his
daughter and three members of his staff in October 2002, the horror of
his death nearly overshadowed the meaning of his li


