KQED listeners and Howard Deaniacs patiently lined up in the on-again off-again drizzly evening outside the Roxie, reading complimentary copies of Mother Jones and blocking the entrance to Dalva, as a sodden and trodden election flyer featuring Matt Gonzalez endorsing Calvin Louie for treasurer looked forlornly up from the sidewalk.

Before Dean vowed to take back the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party, there was Paul Wellstone (from whom Dean stole the line). The voluble and ebullient Carleton political science professor was advocating against both Iraq wars before it was cool, and fought tirelessly for universal health care and energy reform in the 12 years he spent as a Minnesota senator. Some say he's one of the inspirations for the West Wing's President Bartlet (down to their diagnoses of multiple sclerosis).

Tragically, Wellstone, his wife and daughter, three other campaign staffers, and two pilots were killed in a plane crash 11 days before the 2002 election, right as he were pulling ahead of Republican (and now Senator) Norm Coleman in the polls. We all know how the rest of that election turned out for America. Now, Wellstone supporters have put together , a documentary about Wellstone's life and the power of idealism to make a positive change, which showed as part of the Mother Jones Agitators and Instigators series of the 21st Film Arts Film Fest Saturday night at the Roxie.

Wellstone!