Has there been a more striking example than the Wellstone memorial service-turned-political rally of the phenomenon (described by Stanley Kurtz and the Public Interest) of secular liberalism as religion?

For all its stated devotion to tolerance, the secular faith in which progressive politics composes the sacraments has a fundamentalist cast that is anything but ecumenical in spirit. Imagine asking a Republican vice-president – the vice-president of the United States! – not to attend a memorial service for a late Democratic senator lest the Republican VP's presence upset the worshipers. Imagine singling out GOP dignitaries who have come to pay their respects, and urging them to join in granting the late senator's seat to a Democrat by acclamation. Altar calls, anyone?

The political wake has a long and proud tradition, but as a complement to a proper funeral. How sad that Sen. Wellstone, his wife and daughter, tragically lost, were sent to their rest with rites so partisan, and lacking in grace.

UPDATE: Andrew Sullivan and Peggy Noonan describe how the political trumped the humane at the Wellstone service. (Meantime, James Lileks takes up –and sets down – Walter Mondale.)

ALSO: TS O'Rama sounds a similar chord on the Wellstone rites: Suddenly it became clear - this is their religion!