[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 145 (Tuesday, November 12, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10810-S10831]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    IN REMEMBRANCE OF PAUL WELLSTONE

  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, let me reiterate our welcome to Senator 
Barkley, but no one needs to be reminded how it is he is here. I begin 
our remembrance of Paul Wellstone with the recognition that at times 
such as this it is more important to celebrate a life than to mourn a 
death. I will do my utmost in the next couple of minutes to remember my 
own advice, the importance of celebrating a life.
  We mourn the loss of Paul Wellstone, his wife Sheila, their daughter 
Marcia, the staff, and the pilots who lost their lives. It has been a 
shock from which we have not yet fully recovered. Sometimes in these 
difficult moments, I turn to the Bible, sometimes I turn to expressions 
offered to me by others, and sometimes to poetry.
  An old Irish text was found in a Carmelite monastery in Tallow 
County, Wicklow, Ireland. The text was entitled ``Togetherness.'' I 
find solace in the words of Togetherness.

     Death is nothing at all--
     I have only slipped away into the next room.
     Whatever we were to each other, that we are still.
     Call me by my old familiar name, speak to me in the easy way 
           which we always used.
     Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed 
           together.
     Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.
     Let my name be the household word it always was.
     Let it be spoken without effort.
     Life means all that it ever meant.
     It is the same as it always was:
     There is an absolute unbroken continuity.
     Why would I be out of your mind because I am out of your 
           sight?
     I am but waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very 
           near, just around the corner.
     All is well. Nothing is passed, nothing is lost.
     One brief moment, and all will be as it was before--
     Only better, infinitely happier, and forever--
     We will all be one together . . .

  Paul was all of 5 foot 5. But I remember what someone once told me: 
someone certainly more than 5 foot 5. He said it is not the size of the 
man in the fight, it is the size of the fight in the man. Paul 
Wellstone by that measurement was a giant. He fought. He spoke. He 
challenged us all. But he did so in a way that made him a friend, not 
an enemy, a friend with people on this side of the aisle and a friend, 
of course, with those on this side, too; he had friends.
  While he walked in this Chamber small in stature, everyone recognized 
that if you measure a man and, in so doing, measure the true weight of 
his being, you don't measure his size, you measure his heart.
  Paul Wellstone inspired me. With his physical challenges--his back, 
his knees, his legs from wrestling injuries, and then later with MS--I 
never once heard him complain. Never once did he come to me saying, 
Tom, you have to give me an opportunity to recover, to rest. He had an 
energy, a dynamism, that overcame all of those ailments. He seemed more 
well than those who are well. He inspired all with his joy, with his 
passion, with his energy.
  For those of us who believe in public service, there was no greater 
evidence of his deep sense of commitment to public service than his 
advocacy for mental health parity. Again, working across the aisle with 
Senator Domenici, that passion, that energy, that commitment, that 
determination, that persistence, all that was Paul Wellstone, flowed 
right up there from that desk. We knew he cared about mental health 
parity. I can think of no better monument, no better memorial, no 
better way to honor him than by passing mental health parity soon.
  We were all the beneficiaries. Perhaps those who will benefit most by 
his memory, his example, by his commitment, are our youth. I spoke to 
his staff on the Sunday following his passing. I reminded them that in 
the course of 5 years in my early life, I, too, lost heroes. Their 
names were John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King. 
While I recognize their physical being is no longer here, as our poem 
said, I recognize, too, that they only slipped into the next room, and 
their spirit was very much alive. And that burns within me with my 
understanding and my belief in our democracy in this commitment you 
must make to public service.
  In remembering the Wellstones, we must also pay tribute to that 
remarkable woman, Sheila Wellstone, for her advocacy, her leadership, 
her commitment to abolishing domestic abuse. The commitment she made, 
the lives she saved, her willingness to be engaged, the extraordinary 
effort she made and the example she set, too, is something we will 
always remember and for which we will always be indebted.
  On this new day, let us not think of sadness but of celebration. Let 
us celebrate the life of Paul Wellstone as we acknowledge the loss of 
his physical being. Let us extend our heartfelt condolences to David, 
to Mark, and to Todd, to Cari, Keith, to Joshua and Acacia, Sydney and 
Matt, his family. The hole in their hearts is large. The hole in their 
lives may never be fully filled.
  To them I ask they, too, find solace in the words of 
``Togetherness.''

       Death is nothing at all--I have only slipped away into the 
     next room. Whatever we were to each other, that we are still.

  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Republican leader.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I will begin by thanking Senator Daschle for 
his remarks so well delivered just now and also for conversations that 
he and I experienced in the aftermath of this tragic loss.
  I rise today also to pay tribute to the life and the service of 
Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota. He had a real impact on this 
institution. He was a committed warrior to things he believed in. He 
did it not only with compassion but with sincerity and also 
generousness and geniality. He never failed to take the time to tell a 
story, to explain why he felt so strongly

[[Page S10811]]

about these issues. He was unfailingly willing to be considerate of 
others, to seek an agreement as to how the process would work, even 
when it led to a battle of words and of votes. He also had such an 
upbeat, optimistic view of that process, that battle, and the next one.
  He would come over and say: ``Good job, I'll get you next time,'' if 
he hadn't won. Even when he might be the single vote, or one of a 
couple of votes--just a few--he was undaunted. You cannot help but 
admire that approach to life and to the Senate. I not only understand 
when Senators take a different view, I appreciate it when they take 
that view--the way Paul Wellstone did.
  I have learned over the years that the saying that seems trite is so 
true in life and in this institution: You can disagree without being 
disagreeable. He was the master at that.
  I appreciated the friendship we developed. I loved to pick at him. I 
loved to go over and kid him about the little extra face hair that he 
had for a while, and I would tell him he was my man for the nomination 
for Presidency. When other potential candidates would come up, I would 
say: Oh, no, I am already committed to Paul. He loved it, actually.
  He was very kind to me. When I faced difficult tragedies--as with 
Paul Coverdell, when I stood here with tears rolling down my face, 
announcing the loss of that great Senator--he would always be one of 
the first to come over and engage and say how he felt. Sometimes in 
difficult straits that the Senate has had to go through, when Senator 
Daschle and I had to make difficult decisions, he would be the only one 
who would come over and say: It was tough, I know, but you did the 
right thing. I remember that.
  So I think the people of Minnesota have an awful lot to be proud of 
in their Senator. When I went there to pay my respects to the people of 
Minnesota and to the family and to his friends and supporters, Senator 
Kennedy was on the bus as we were leaving the airport. He said: We 
appreciate the fact that you are here. I know you are here not just 
because you are the leader of the party, but because you wanted to pay 
proper respects.
  I said: I am here because it is the right thing to do, but also 
because, if the tables had been reversed and this was for me, Paul 
would have been there. I really believe that.
  So I take my hat off, I salute the Senator. He will be missed. The 
Senate will be different. But to the people and his family who are so 
heartbroken, to his friends and supporters and the people all over his 
State, our memory of him and his service will not be forgotten. He will 
go down in history as a truly unique Member of the Senate. I guess we 
all are in some respects but Paul more so than others.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The senior Senator from Minnesota.
  Mr. DAYTON. Mr. President, for more than 20 years Paul and Sheila 
Wellstone were my friends and my political allies, so it is with a 
heavy heart that I stand here today. For the last 2 years Paul was my 
mentor and partner in the Senate, and I will miss him especially, as 
will Minnesota, as will America.
  I thank my many colleagues in the Senate who came to Minnesota just a 
short time ago for the memorial service commemorating Paul and Sheila, 
their daughter Marcia, their staff and friends, Mary McEvoy, the 
Democratic Party Associate Chair, Tom Lapic, and Will McLaughlin. Over 
half of the Senate attended that evening. Another dozen former 
Senators, a dozen or so Members of the House, President Clinton, Vice 
President Gore, Secretary Thompson, Reverend Jackson. Paul and Sheila 
would have been honored.
  I especially want to thank my Republican colleagues, Senator Lott, 
Senator Nickles, and the others who attended that evening. I was not 
aware until the next day that Senator Lott was treated discourteously 
by some in the Minnesota crowd. To him and anyone else who suffered 
that misfortune, I deeply apologize. Paul and Sheila would have been 
horrified, as was I when I learned about it, as would the people of 
Minnesota have been. That is not the way we treat distinguished guests 
in Minnesota.
  As for the rest of the evening, if the eulogists spoke sometimes a 
little long, they at times became impassioned, political, or even 
partisan--well, it was a service for Paul Wellstone. The speakers were 
selected, but they weren't scripted. They were all family and close 
friends who were still in shock and in great emotional distress and in 
deep pain.
  What was most extraordinary about that service that evening, what 
hopefully will be remembered now the campaigns have concluded, is that 
over 20,000 people came to honor the lives and mourn the tragic deaths 
of Paul and Sheila and Marcia Wellstone, Mary McEvoy, Tom Lapic, and 
Will McLaughlin--over 20,000 people. That was unprecedented in 
Minnesota.
  Nothing in my lifetime or in my knowledge of the State was even in 
the same realm of that magnitude of love and gratitude and grief and 
sorrow. The service was held at the University of Minnesota Basketball 
Arena which seats over 15,000 people. It was filled an hour before the 
service was scheduled to begin. The fire marshals closed the doors. 
Another 6,000 or so arrivals filled an adjacent arena to watch the 
service on closed-circuit television. It, too, was overfilled by the 
time the service began. Police and university officials urged late 
arrivals to go home and watch the service on television, but hundreds, 
several hundred, remained clustered outside, standing around, wanting 
to be part of this unprecedented Minnesota congregation. That enormous 
outpouring of people and their emotions attested to the breadth and 
depth of Paul Wellstone's political reach. He had touched so many 
people so deeply. He had helped them, comforted them, and reassured 
them. He had inspired so many people. He was their voice, their 
champion, their hero, their United States Senator. And then suddenly, 
tragically, cruelly, he was snatched away and gone forever.
  It was a service to remember and in part regret. It was a service of 
remembrance and regret for eight exceptional people who lost their 
lives flying to a funeral service in northeastern Minnesota.
  I knew Paul, but the first time I saw him in action was in June of 
1982 at the DFL State Convention. I was endorsed at that convention to 
run for the first time for the U.S. Senate, and the first day that 3-
day convention opened, Paul announced--much to everyone's surprise--he 
was going to run for the endorsement for State auditor 2 days hence.
  For the previous 8 months, a very earnest young man had been in every 
county and every district and political event in Minnesota in 
Democratic circles, explaining in numbing detail the functions of the 
office of State auditor and how he was the best qualified to fulfill 
them. Sunday came around, and the auditor's endorsement was the last 
endorsement at the end of the third day. There were 1,300 Democratic 
delegates who were tired and worn out and ready to go home. Paul 
appeared on the stage after his opponent's one last excruciating 
explanation of the auditor's position, and presented himself--most of 
the audience seeing him for the first time--and he gave a typical Paul 
Wellstone speech: Nuclear freeze, save the environment, for economic 
justice--nothing of much particular relevance to the office of State 
auditor. He was endorsed by acclamation of the delegates.
  Paul and I both lost our elections that November, but we spent the 
next 3 years campaigning together, working for the Governor of 
Minnesota, Rudy Perpich, in the Office of Energy and Economic 
Development. We spent many hours talking and traveling the State 
together. In 1990 we swapped our political aspirations, Paul ran for 
the Senate and I for State auditor, and this time we won. Paul's 
victory in 1990 was one of the most memorable David-defeats-Goliath 
stories in America's political history.
  In the first published poll several months before the election, the 
incumbent was ahead by over 50 percent. Paul was in single digits. He 
was given no chance to win, and almost no help by the political 
establishment. He was outspent in the campaign by over 5 to 1. Yet Paul 
was the only Democratic challenger that year who ousted an incumbent. 
His campaign symbol, his signature and his icon, became the rattling, 
gas-guzzling, usually in-the-repair-shop green bus. But despite a 
brilliant campaign which captured the

[[Page S10812]]

public attention, this distinctively different candidate walked fast 
and talked fast and actually rode a bus. His innovative ads won 
national awards that year, produced a campaign that couldn't even 
afford to air them.
  Despite 8 months of Paul Wellstone and his best hyperdrive, that 
amazing energy and excitement, and organizing all over the State, he 
still entered that final weekend before the election, with most polls 
showing him being 6 to 8 points behind.
  That Saturday, as our Statewide DFL ticket boarded the bus--not 
Paul's bus, which was once again in the repair shop, but another bus--
for its final 2-day swing around the State, Paul's opponent had just 
launched a vicious personal attack against him. The campaign had no 
money to produce or air a response. Those 2 days were agonizing for 
Paul and Sheila and Marcia, who accompanied him, and for those of us 
who were sharing that experience with him. Then, like a miracle, the 
hero of the moment came forth, the former Senator and Vice President, 
Walter Mondale, whom fate was to bind to the conclusion of another 
Wellstone campaign 12 years later.
  The Vice President publicly denounced the attack as a violation of 
Minnesota's standard of decency. The editorial board of the State's 
largest newspaper agreed the day before the election. And the majority 
of Minnesota voters agreed the following day.
  It was the most stunning upset and astounding victory in Minnesota 
political history.
  Paul Wellstone was on the green bus headed to Washington, which, of 
course, was the bus that broke down on the way.
  Despite Paul's 20 years of political experience, he wasn't prepared 
for the Senate. The Senate may not have been prepared for Paul. I know 
he later regretted some of his earlier decisions. He told me so after 
he sat down with me when I won my election two years ago, and he was 
counseling me to take a different approach.
  But while he would have changed perhaps his early style, he would not 
have changed his substance. He would not have changed because he could 
not have changed his values or his ideals or his convictions. He could 
not alter his passion for social justice, his caring for people, or his 
outrage at their oppression or suffering. His values were the essence 
of who he was. They were the core of his beliefs, the cornerstone of 
his conscience. They were the hallowed ground of his political soul.
  Paul Wellstone was a hard-working political activist, a hard-nosed 
political organizer, and a smart, savvy politician. He wanted to win. 
He knew how to win. But he would not win if it meant losing his soul or 
forgetting his conscience or sacrificing his principles.
  He was no Don Quixote out tilting at windmills. He was rather, a 
Richard the Lionheart on a crusade, mindful of the risks, the pitfalls, 
and the odds, but undeterred by them.
  Time after time during his 12 years in the Senate, he took his stand 
believing that he was right--well, maybe not right but correct. He 
voted his conscience. He voted his convictions, hoping that 50 or more 
of his colleagues would vote with him, but willing to stand alone if 
they did not.

  Some people said that Paul's dissenting votes reflected badly on him. 
Others said they reflected badly on the Senate. Some people believe the 
Senate would be a better place without Paul Wellstone. Others of us 
believe the Senate would be a better place with 50 more like him.
  Those who questioned his accomplishments overlook the obvious. Paul 
could work tirelessly, speak persuasively, and do everything 
effectively. But he could only vote once--1 out of 100, 1 out of 535.
  Paul had only 2 years out of his 12 years with a Democratic 
President, Senate, and House, as the Republicans will have again in 
January. For his other 10 years, Paul served in divided government. He 
did not accomplish all he wanted to. He did not accomplish much he 
wanted to. But he accomplished all he could. And he would have 
accomplished so much more if death had not intervened so suddenly and 
so cruelly.
  There was so much life and so much politics left in Paul Wellstone, 
and so much courage. His death echoes the words of Ernest Hemingway:

       Few men are willing to brave the disapproval of their 
     fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their 
     society. Moral courage is a rarer quality than bravery in 
     battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, 
     vital quality of those who would seek to change a world which 
     yields most painfully to change. If people bring so much 
     courage to this world, the world has to kill them to break 
     them, so of course it kills them. The world breaks everyone 
     and afterwards many are strong at the broken places. But 
     those that will not break, it kills. It kills the very good 
     and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you 
     are none of those, you can be sure that it will kill you too 
     but there will be no special hurry.

  Those are the words of Ernest Hemingway.
  Paul Wellstone wasn't that fatalistic. At least, he didn't live or 
practice the politics of fatalism. Paul was a social reformer and a 
crusader for social and economic reform. He believed in it. He 
dedicated his life to it. He gave his life for it. He knew the odds 
were stacked heavily against him, especially here in Washington. He 
knew how hard it was; how unusual the circumstances had to be for a 
Paul Wellstone to make it to the Senate. He knew how hard it was for a 
Paul Wellstone to stay here, to combat the powerful forces aligned 
against him and their enormous financial and political resources that 
would try to defeat him.
  He detested political fundraising. He disliked the amounts of money 
he had to ask for, and he distrusted most of the people who could 
provide it. His loathing of fundraising was matched only by his hatred 
of flying in small airplanes--the principal reason he vowed his 1996 
campaign would be his last. But when the time came, he could not turn 
his back on the crusade. He could not abandon the causes, and he could 
not leave the people--because it was the people Paul loved. He loved 
being with people.
  As long as he wasn't raising money from them, or flying with them, 
Paul loved being with people--real people, farmers, iron rangers, 
educators, senior citizens, children, all classes, all races, all 
religions, all points of view. Paul practiced the politics of 
diversity, and inclusion, and empowerment. He truly cared about people 
as individuals. He cared about their lives, their families, their well-
being. He loved visiting veterans homes, nursing homes, and schools. He 
loved spending hours with people who couldn't vote or benefit him 
politically.
  He cared about people because they needed him--not because he needed 
them. The poor, the unfortunate, the mentally ill, the disadvantaged 
and the distressed--he loved working for them, working to make their 
lives better, and working to give them a chance, a job, a farm, a home, 
a life.
  I agree with the majority leader. If this Senate, if this Congress 
and this administration want to show their respect for Paul Wellstone, 
if they want to honor his memory, we will pass and the President will 
sign into law the Wellstone-Domenici Mental Health Parity bill before 
we adjourn this year. Nothing less would do him justice. Nothing else 
would make him happier.
  Paul came to love this institution of the Senate. For an organizer, 
it was the ultimate challenge. He genuinely liked most of his 
colleagues--even those he disagreed with most of the time. Yes. He got 
frustrated, discouraged, and impatient. But he respected the Senate. He 
loved being a Senator, and he was learning how to be a great one.
  He was a great man. He was a great husband--with an even greater 
wife, Sheila. He was a great father and a great politician. He was an 
excellent U.S. Senator, and he was becoming a great one. But death 
denied him that opportunity. And it denied us him, and it denied the 
people of Minnesota the leader they elected to represent them.
  He died on his way to a funeral, that of the father of a friend. He 
flew because he had to, despite what in hindsight seems more like a 
premonition than a fear. He willed himself to fly because he had to be 
the best U.S. Senator he could be.
  And he never backed away from adversity. He got on a reliable plane 
with a reputable charter firm flown by two licensed pilots. They flew 
into what was reportedly occluded but not threatening weather, with low 
clouds and light, freezing precipitation--not ideal but not unusual for 
northern Minnesota in late fall.

[[Page S10813]]

  And then, somehow, inexplicably, the plane landed in a desolate 
forest rather than a nearby airport. It burst into a huge conflagration 
and destroyed the lives of eight people, and damaged many more lives 
who lost their loved ones, and left many thousands--thousands--of 
people without their leaders, their allies, their heroes, and their 
friends.
  But life goes on, as it must. Minnesota held an election, as it 
should. Senator-elect Norm Coleman conducted himself honorably in the 
aftermath of that great tragedy and won honorably and honestly in that 
election and has earned the right, through the expressed will of the 
people of Minnesota, to serve as a U.S. Senator for 6 years, beginning 
in January. And I pray that he will be our Senator for the next 6 
years.
  But former Vice President Mondale performed a great service to our 
DFL Party in Minnesota, to our State, and I believe to our democracy by 
stepping forward at the last moment when, in hindsight, the situation 
was impossible but seemed possible only because it was former Vice 
President Mondale.
  Senator Dean Barkley is an excellent appointment made by Governor 
Ventura. He has earned this honor. He is knowledgeable. He is 
experienced. And he is committed to good government. He has proven that 
as commissioner of State planning. Through his own political pioneering 
he has forged an independent strength and spirit which has captured the 
political imagination of the people throughout our State and offers 
great promise in the years ahead, and he will have himself great 
promise in the years ahead. I am honored to be working with him during 
these next months, as I look forward to working with Senator-elect 
Coleman when he begins his term in January.
  We have a special spirit in Minnesota. Our political spirit is 
testified to here today by Congressman Jim Ramstad and Congressman Mark 
Kennedy, who are witnessing these words of tribute to their colleague. 
Both worked closely with Senator Wellstone, especially Congressman 
Ramstad during his long years in the House with Paul on many issues of 
which they shared concern and commitment. And Paul's staff, who loved 
him and gave their lives of service with him, and who are suffering a 
loss that is also immeasurable, are here as well. And I pray that they, 
too, will find opportunities in the future. I know they will, but it 
just will not be with Paul.
  Years ago, then-President John Kennedy paraphrased a statement made 
by Theodore Roosevelt which seems like a fitting bipartisan note on 
which to end these remarks. He said in New York City, in a speech 
paraphrasing President Roosevelt:

       The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, 
     whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who knows 
     the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends 
     himself in a worthy cause; who at best, if he wins, knows the 
     thrills of high achievement, and, if he fails, at least fails 
     daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those 
     cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

  Paul, you have won many battles, but now you can wipe the dust and 
sweat and blood off of your face, and may you rest in eternal peace.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Durbin). Under the previous order, the 
Senator from Minnesota is recognized.
  Mr. BARKLEY. Mr. President, I stand to say a few words in honor of 
the late Senator Paul Wellstone.
  Over a decade ago, Minnesota sent one of its best to this Chamber. He 
followed in the special tradition of public service that our State 
knows well. From Ramsey to Stassen, from Olson to Humphrey, from 
Mondale to, yes, Ventura, our State has broken the mold more than once.
  The man we sent here was Paul Wellstone, and no one would dispute 
that Minnesota broke the mold again. Paul was short in stature but, as 
it proved, enormous in energy and passion. He had a passion for 
principle, he had a passion for politics, and, most of all, he had a 
passion for people.
  Paul was a fighter, and, much like Hubert Humphrey, a Happy Warrior. 
Paul was the most effective kind of fighter there is: one that never 
gives up--never. And if there is one attribute that his colleagues and 
his constituents admired, it was this: his unrelenting energy to fight 
the fight.
  I knew Paul. I respected Paul. We both have been like salmon in our 
own political rivers, swimming into the currents. Therefore, 
understanding his tireless energies in the cause of change, I am highly 
honored to speak to his memory today.
  True, there is an empty desk here today, a shrouded reminder of a 
life cut short. But for the Paul Wellstone I knew, the empty chair is 
more telling. Whether he was in this Chamber or at home in Minnesota, 
Paul was on his feet, out of his chair, speaking his mind. Always 
moving--in thought, in language, in body--Paul was, indeed, a man of 
motion and, more than that, a man of emotion. For if there is something 
that we all knew about Paul, he not only believed in things, he felt 
them. This was why Paul Wellstone was so formidable. For thought can be 
persuaded, changed, and abated. But a feeling? Never.
  Paul, his wife Sheila, and their daughter Marcia tragically perished 
in the northlands of our State. Their untimely fate was sadly shared by 
three loyal staff members--Tom Lapic, Will McLaughlin, and Mary 
McEvoy--as well as the two pilots--Captains Richard Conry and Michael 
Guess.
  As an unexpected and new Member of this Chamber--but more, as a 
singular citizen of the State of Minnesota--allow me to take this 
moment to express my personal and heartfelt condolences to all of those 
families who lost their loved ones. I know I speak for all Minnesotans 
when I say to those families and friends: Your loss was our loss, and 
we are all crushingly sorry for it.
  Paul was unique, one of a kind. And yet, the essence of the man was 
no different from anyone in this Chamber. He wanted to make his State, 
and his Nation--our world--a better place. We all may differ about how 
to do so, and some may have disagreed with how Paul saw it, but no one 
ever doubted his motives. A selfless champion for those who have no 
voice--the frail, the weak, the disenfranchised--Paul's voice was their 
voice. And what a voice it was.
  Typical of Paul's self-deprecating sense of humor, he loved to relate 
his meeting with a distinguished senior Member of this body, Senator 
Fritz Hollings of South Carolina, who remarked to Paul, ``You know, 
Senator Wellstone, you remind me of another Minnesota Senator, Hubert 
H. Humphrey.'' And as Paul began to swell with pride at being in the 
company of this great champion of civil rights, the senior Senator 
burst his bubble, ``Yes, sir, just like him, you talk too much.'' Paul 
loved this story, and he loved telling it on himself--so typical of the 
man.
  Most of all, Paul loved and adored his wife and his family, 
especially his grandchildren. He loved his friends. He loved Carleton 
College in Northfield, MN. He loved his students; and they knew it. 
Indeed, Paul simply loved people. And he loved them simply, 
unabashedly.
  Paul loved Minnesota and all the people in it. From the known and 
recognized, to the unknown and uncared for, he loved them all--truly 
and deeply.
  Finally, Mr. President, Paul loved this distinguished institution. He 
loved and cherished the U.S. Senate, where today I, too, am honored to 
stand. Paul loved his entire staff.
  Let me take this opportunity to thank Senator Wellstone's staff for 
your generous and gracious welcome and offer of support in the truly 
hectic days since Thursday when I arrived. That you could be so 
unselfish in your time of unspeakable loss and heartbreak is something 
I will never, ever forget. I sincerely thank you for the help you have 
given me.
  I plan to continue the fight during my short time here on one of 
Paul's signature issues: mental health parity. And with Senator Dayton 
and Minnesota's Congressional delegation, we plan to introduce a bill 
to honor Sheila and Paul Wellstone through a living legacy project. I 
hope that everyone in this Chamber will join us in this tribute.
  There is a brief passage out of ``Sonnets from the Portuguese,'' by 
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, that I would like to share. Her words more 
perfectly express the thoughts that I am so inadequately attempting to 
convey about our dear, departed friend, Paul Wellstone:


[[Page S10814]]


     ``Guess now who holds thee?''
     ``--Death,'' I said.
     But there the silver answer rang:
     ``Not Death--but Love.''

  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Nevada.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, on October 25 the Senate and the people of 
Minnesota, the people of this country, and I personally suffered a 
terrible loss--the death of our colleague, Paul Wellstone, who, as we 
know, died in a plane crash with his wife Sheila and daughter Marcia, 
three members of his staff, and the pilots.
  I am sure we will all reflect back on how we were notified, how we 
learned of this tragedy. I was speaking to Senator Daschle's chief of 
staff, Pete Rouse, asking him how things were going. We talked quite a 
bit during the last month of the campaign.
  He said: I have some bad news.
  What?
  He said: Senator Wellstone's plane went down in Minnesota, and there 
is no hope that anyone survived that crash.
  I will never forget that phone call. The passing of Paul Wellstone is 
a loss for all of us, those who knew him and those who did not. This 
week, most of us are returning to Washington for the first time since 
the tragedy, so this is our opportunity, this is my opportunity, to 
speak about Paul Wellstone with whom I lived here for 12 years, a long 
time, a lot of days. I certainly am not qualified to talk about all of 
his accomplishments. There are professors who will write about his 
accomplishments in years to come. But I can talk about him as a person, 
how I saw him.
  He represented Minnesota well; there is no question about that. 
Although he did not grow up in Minnesota, moving there as an adult, he 
embraced the state and its people. And the people of Minnesota loved 
him dearly and deeply. He talked often of how much he enjoyed living in 
Minnesota and how proud he was to represent Minnesotans and be a part 
of the great political legacy of the state.
  My father-in-law was born in Russia. But as a boy, he immigrated to 
Minnesota, and he grew up in Duluth, a tough town, where he and his 
friends all had nicknames. My mother-in-law grew up in Minneapolis. So 
when I got to meet a Senator from Minnesota, of course, I was eager to 
share a lot of my personal reflections on my wife's family, and Paul 
and I enjoyed talking about Minnesota.
  The impact that Paul Wellstone made and the admiration he received 
extended well beyond Minnesota. He and I were allies in many 
legislative battles, and I know many people in the State of Nevada--
working families, veterans, retirees, teachers, students, health care 
professionals and their patients--also appreciated him. He was an 
articulate and compassionate public servant who fought fiercely for 
them. Many more Nevadans, like all Americans, are now better off 
because of Paul Wellstone's work in the Senate, and they would be even 
better off had he been able to be elected to his third term, as he 
would have been.
  Of course, here among his colleagues in the Senate he was not only 
well liked but respected, as has been said here today on several 
occasions. People might not have always or even often agreed with Paul, 
but they all had great respect for him. That is why I was so impressed 
to see a number of his Republican colleagues from Minnesota come and 
stand in silence at his desk today.
  I was fortunate to serve with Paul, to benefit from his advice and 
his judgment, and to enjoy his friendship. I smile because I am going 
to be lonelier here in the Senate without Paul.
  I don't know on how many occasions I went to Paul Wellstone: Paul, do 
you have to do this? And he always explained why he had to do it.
  I am a better Senator and I know I am a better person for having 
known Paul. 
  He used his voice to speak passionately and courageously on behalf of 
the voiceless. He gave hope to the hopeless and helpless. He was a kind 
and gentle person.
  I used to see him often in the House gym. He would run from his home 
to the gym every morning. When because of illness, he couldn't run 
anymore, without a lot of fanfare and a lot of talk, he walked. Then he 
decided to work out other places. He went to the gymnasium where the 
police officers, the Capitol Police, work out. Those of us who knew and 
loved Paul saw his physical deterioration, but it was something about 
which he never complained.
  I remember one occasion when Sheila had gone home and he was here 
alone. He couldn't get dressed; he was in such pain. He came here. We 
helped him down to the physician's office. He never complained. He was 
in such pain, sweat coming off his head.
  He was a tough person physically, a tough person. I can vouch for 
that. He was a champion wrestler, high school and college. I think 
probably the dedication that it takes to be a wrestler, losing weight, 
having to exert total energy for an extended period of time, the work 
ethic he developed, the things he did physically and mentally and 
emotionally, and his determination that made him so successful on the 
mat also prepared him well for the successes he had as an organizer and 
activist, campaigner, Senator, and a person.
  Paul Wellstone was a fighter who always remained true to his beliefs, 
stood up for his principles, served the interests of the people of 
Minnesota and the United States.
  There are many things about Paul Wellstone that I remember and hold 
dear. I can say without any hesitation that he was my friend. I think 
he thought I was his friend.
  I remember the first time I ever heard Paul Wellstone speak. That was 
in 1990 when there was a public reception in Statuary Hall for the 
newly elected Senators. We were all there. He stood and gave a great 
speech. I asked: Who is this guy? He said it so well. He said things I 
thought about, the importance of politics and government and being 
involved. He spoke of his grassroots campaign.
  I remember the last speech I heard him give, right there. In the 
years I have been in the Senate, that seat has been the place of great 
speeches. Paul Wellstone took over Dale Bumpers' seat. They both had a 
similar style in many respects. They both wandered around back there 
with that long cord.
  The last speech I heard Paul give, he said, among other things--and 
this is a quote--

       You could call me a softie. I am a softie.

  And he was. He believed he could help people who are less fortunate 
than he, someone that didn't have a Ph.D., who had been a college 
professor, hadn't been a U.S. Senator, who didn't have the fine loving 
family that he had. He could reach out to them. He felt he could do 
that. He was a softie.

  Mr. President, I don't always go to the prayer breakfasts held every 
Wednesday, but I do go on occasion. I don't go every Wednesday. But I 
wanted to hear Paul Wellstone at a Senate prayer breakfast, so I went 
to that prayer breakfast. It was a memorable experience for me to hear 
Paul talk about his spirituality, which is something he didn't speak 
out about in public--except on this occasion. I will never forget that 
prayer breakfast, where Paul Wellstone spoke of his spirituality, his 
faith, his deeply held principles. He was a man committed to ideas and 
ideals.
  I also remember Paul for the love he had for his wife Sheila. They 
were inseparable. In this campaign, there were a lot of comparisons 
made between his campaign and mine in 1986, where the opposing 
candidate switched parties; there were a lot of similarities. He said 
talk to Sheila about that, show her the ads that you ran. They were 
always together, never apart. Even now it is so. They had the love of 
their children, the surviving boys, Mark and David. One is involved in 
public housing and the other is a wrestling coach and teacher. Right 
here, a few feet in front of me, on one of those Fridays where we were 
trying to get everything done and get out of here, Paul was so anxious 
to go. Why? Because he thought this was the time his son's wrestling 
team was going to be the State champions of Minnesota. Paul Wellstone, 
Barbara Boxer, and I were talking. I was trying to stall for time, and 
I asked, ``How many wrestling matches have you had, Paul?''
  I also remember Paul because of my dad. As I have said here on 
occasion, my father committed suicide. One reason I have been able to 
publicly talk about that is because of Paul

[[Page S10815]]

Wellstone. Paul helped us to understand mental illness is not something 
to be ashamed of. Any time Paul Wellstone publicly had a chance to talk 
about suicide, he talked about suicide prevention and talked about my 
efforts on this. He never tried to take credit for anything alone. He 
worked so hard on the issue mental health parity. Part of that is 
suicide. We have 31,000 people a year killing themselves. Because of 
Paul, we are doing something about that. We passed a resolution in the 
Senate recognizing it as a national health problem. We have given money 
to research the problems of suicide, depression and mental illness. 
There are medical schools now studying why people kill themselves. So I 
will never forget Paul Wellstone for a lot of reasons, not the least of 
which is my father.
  I will also remember Paul Wellstone for the things he did for the so-
called little people--those who are often not noticed or are neglected. 
How many of us around here know the people who clean our offices? Not 
many of us. They come by late at night when we are gone, and when we 
come into the offices in the morning the trash cans are empty, the 
desks are cleaned off. It's easy to overlook the people who do that, 
who work hard to help us. Paul and Sheila Wellstone wanted to know who 
they were, so they waited and waited until somebody came to their 
office so they could thank them for cleaning the office. That also 
includes the elevator operators, doorkeepers, police officers, 
janitors, as I have already mentioned. He knew them by name, stopped to 
talk with them and listened to them.
  To show the kind of guy he was with the Capitol Police, Mr. 
President, this man holds the record--he was suffering from multiple 
sclerosis and he holds the record--with all these big, physical, well-
trained, young policemen--he holds the record for pushups and pullups. 
You can go and see who holds the record at the Capitol Police 
gymnasium. It is Senator Paul Wellstone. He was a hell of a man, Mr. 
President.

  He stared disease in the face; he had multiple sclerosis. Did anybody 
ever hear Paul whine, complain, or feel sorry for himself? No. He took 
it right on the jaw, like he did a lot of punches, and he went about 
doing his business. Those of us who worked with him for 12 years saw 
how his physical condition deteriorated. How long would it have been 
before he had to walk with a cane? I don't know. But he persevered. 
That is one reason I remember Paul Wellstone.
  Of course, Mr. President, we all remember Paul Wellstone because he 
stood for something. No one could ever question Paul Wellstone's sense 
of value. I still smile when I remember saying to Paul, ``Do you have 
to do this?'' Well, I knew the answer before I asked the question. We 
who hold public office are judged on the difficult votes we are called 
on to make. To his credit, Paul Wellstone relied on his conscience--not 
on consultants--in such moments. I admire him so much for that.
  Before entering politics, Paul was a gifted and popular college 
professor. To a great extent, he remained a teacher even after entering 
the Senate, educating his constituents about government, and 
encouraging colleagues to learn more about issues and consider other 
perspectives, engaging us and challenging us. There are lots of times I 
can reflect back on when Paul Wellstone, in his Socrates-like 
presentations, was trying to educate the Senate. He would say to me, 
``I am wasting my time; what good am I doing here?'' I would proceed to 
tell him all the good he had done. He was educating me, getting me to 
reflect upon what he had done, just like I am sure he did at Carleton 
College with his students.
  Paul was a person with great compassion, who reminded us of our moral 
obligation to care for all human beings--I repeat, especially the most 
vulnerable, the hungry, the poor, the homeless, the ill, victims of 
abuse, and others who suffered.
  Paul Wellstone is irreplaceable. His life was cut short, and because 
of that, it is incumbent upon us in the Senate and throughout America 
to remember his message of hope and compassion and carry forward his 
efforts to secure economic and social justice for all in the best way 
we can. In that way, we honor the legacy of a great man, Paul 
Wellstone.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Corzine). The Senator from Vermont.
  Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Nevada for his 
very articulate statement on Paul's life. We all shared experiences in 
working with Paul.
  Every Sunday, the Washington Post Style Section prints a column 
called ``Life Is Short.'' The column selects one individual and gives a 
snapshot of that individual's life. If that column focused on Senator 
Paul Wellstone's life, the single snapshot would be a large photo 
album.
  Senator Daschle has said Paul Wellstone was the ``soul of the 
Senate.'' I believe Paul tried to find the soul in all of us. He 
challenged us, on a daily basis, to remember that every man, woman, and 
child in this Nation should have access to quality education, a first-
rate health care system that includes mental health and prescription 
drug coverage, and jobs that provide decent minimum wage.
  Three weeks ago, Paul made his final appearance in the Chamber. Paul 
gave a very passionate speech about the need to extend unemployment 
benefits and provide more help for our veterans. His closing comments 
were vintage Paul. He said:

       What are people who cannot find jobs, who are out of work, 
     who are struggling to put food on the table, supposed to do?
       What in the world is going on? What has happened to our 
     humanity?

  Later that day, Paul came back to the Senate floor to give his 
thoughts about the 2003 Defense spending bill. He thanked Senators 
Inouye and Stevens for their inclusion of an amendment that addressed 
domestic violence and sexual assault which he had championed. As we all 
know, the issue is not only important to Paul, it was especially 
important to his wife Sheila.
  At the end of those remarks, Paul said, in reference to his own 
provision that was not included in the final conference agreement:

       I know my colleagues did their best. We will be back.

  That was Paul--always gracious in both victory and defeat. Even more 
importantly, he never focused on defeat because he was constantly 
plotting his next move to better educate his colleagues and their staff 
on the issues--always the college professor.
  I had the honor and the pleasure of working with Paul on an array of 
issues--education, veterans, dairy, health care, and job training. 
These are not easy issues, but the difficulty of the issue never 
deterred Paul. He always saw the glass half full rather than a half-
empty glass.
  In 1997 and 1998, Senators Kennedy, DeWine, Wellstone, and I worked 
together to pass the Workforce Investment Act, legislation that 
restructured our job training system. Throughout those 2 years, we had 
many long meetings. In every single meeting, Paul told us about the 
impact various provisions would have on Minnesota. There was never a 
meeting, public or private, where Paul did not mention the concerns and 
ideas that were on the minds of his constituents.
  Paul would also tell stories of his children. During many HELP 
Committee hearings on education, we would often hear about his two 
children who were teaching in the Minnesota public school system. He 
was so proud of all his children, his grandchildren, and, of course, 
Sheila.
  Paul was also very proud of his staff. He had great respect for their 
views and always remarked to his colleagues that he was very fortunate 
to have a very talented and devoted staff.
  Three years ago at the funeral of Walter Payton, the outstanding 
Chicago Bears running back, who was also an extraordinary human being, 
the Rev. Jesse Jackson remarked that on a tombstone, there is a 
birthday, a small dash, and a date of passing. He said:

       The dash between those two dates is the part you control. . 
     . . The dash determines the height and depth of how you live 
     your life.

  Paul Wellstone maximized the height and depth of his dash. I was so 
lucky to have known Paul, to have had an opportunity to not only work 
with him but to learn from him and, most importantly, to have been able 
to call him a good friend.
  I was en route to Minnesota to campaign for Paul when I learned of 
his tragic death. I instead spent time with

[[Page S10816]]

his wonderful sons, David and Mark. I brought them the pictures of 
their dad celebrating the dairy program victory with Senator Leahy and 
another recent victory for Minnesota as well as New England. It brought 
proud smiles to their faces. As I had expected, they were so much like 
their dad. I know they will continue on the path that Paul and Sheila 
created for them.
  Paul, I will miss you, the Senate will miss you, and the country will 
miss you. May your commitment, energy, integrity, and passion always 
guide us to do our best at all times. Goodbye, Paul.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, life gives no joy like that it takes away. 
As always, the poet said it best. All of us in the Senate were suddenly 
and tragically reminded of that on a Friday morning 2\1/2\ weeks ago--a 
cold, gray, dreary October day. I was in a van driving between Fargo 
and Grand Forks, ND, when I received a call saying that an airplane had 
crashed in northern Minnesota and that Senator Paul Wellstone, his wife 
Sheila, staff, and others were on the plane. To say that I and others 
have been deeply saddened, in fact devastated, by the loss of one of 
our colleagues is perhaps to even understate it.
  Paul Wellstone and Sheila Wellstone died as they campaigned 
throughout Minnesota for another term in the Senate. It was a tough 
campaign, a close campaign, a hard-fought campaign. And yet Paul 
Wellstone never complained about that. He seemed to relish it.
  One of the last things he told me on the floor of the Senate several 
weeks ago about this campaign was, with a sparkle in his eye: We are 
going to win this campaign. He said: Byron, I have 4,000 volunteers--
4,000 volunteers--who are going to be working election day in Minnesota 
for me, getting people to the polls, driving people, calling people.
  That was so typical of Paul Wellstone. It was always about citizen 
action, about people rising to the passion of an idea. That was typical 
Paul Wellstone.
  Paul and Sheila Wellstone were wonderful friends to many of us in the 
Senate, and our thoughts and prayers go to the family, the families of 
the pilots who lost their lives, the families of Paul's daughter and 
the three staff people who were on the plane as well.
  As my colleague from Minnesota, Senator Dayton, said in what I 
thought was a wonderful tribute to his friend and colleague, all of us 
would be remiss if we did not say to Paul's staff: Paul would want 
first and foremost for us to recognize you today. Paul attracted to his 
service in the Senate men and women with the burning in their soul to 
do good things, who cared about fairness and justice and who cared 
about public service.
  All of us who work here know Paul Wellstone had a wonderful staff, 
and they have been through some very difficult times, about as 
difficult as it can get for a Senate staff. Our thoughts and prayers go 
out to them and for strength as well.
  Today let me for a moment remember Paul and Sheila for their service 
to our country. This is a rather small community in the Senate--men and 
women who love this country, fellow travelers who want to make 
democracy work. What the American people see are some pitched battles 
during the day and the early evening hours in the middle of a debate in 
which there are different philosophies and ideas that clash on the 
Senate floor. What they do not see is we are colleagues and friends, 
first and foremost.
  I think the entire Senate membership would say: We have, indeed, lost 
a couple of good friends, Paul and Sheila Wellstone. Our country has 
lost two tireless fighters for justice. The Senate has lost its 
strongest voice for those who do not have it so good in this country. 
And American politics has lost the true champion for the little guy.
  If ever a man and wife were a team, it was Paul and Sheila Wellstone. 
They did everything together. Sheila's public service, as Paul would be 
the first to tell you, was every bit as important as his. That public 
service was marked by a green bus, and that green bus meant in 
Minnesota and our part of the country citizen action, people 
empowerment, and something that was on the move, a mission, a campaign 
on the move.
  It is true, as my colleague said, Paul was different. He would not 
have been caught dead in Ferragamo shoes, even if he wanted them, and 
he did not. He was not a man to wear Brooks Brothers suits. He was 
short of stature and tall of ambition with a power and passion of 
ideas, as my colleague from Nevada just described, that would at the 
end stage of any debate leave him sitting at that chair with two more 
amendments to offer--the hour was late and patience was short. 
Imploring him made no difference. You could say: Paul, Paul, we are 
just out of time; can you just not offer one of these amendments? The 
answer was always the same: Absolutely not. I am here to offer this 
amendment. This amendment is important. I came here to do that work and 
there are people who depend on me to offer this amendment--people whose 
lives were changed because of this amendment.

  It was always with Paul: No. And we always turned away understanding 
the passion that burned in his soul to do the right thing, to do the 
thing he felt was important for our country.
  Paul was different in a much more significant way as well. In today's 
modern politics, it is so often the case that politicians with a 
sophisticated network of pollsters and advisers are able to evaluate 
exactly which way the wind is blowing, to be able to set their sail to 
get maximum capability from that wind. It is a constant job of tacking 
for some into or with that wind to find out exactly where the maximum 
wind will be. Paul was not interested in sailing or winds. Paul was 
only interested in the rudder. He set the rudder and he did not care 
where the wind was: This is the direction I am going and it does not 
matter whether it is a favorable wind or an unfavorable wind. This is 
where we are headed and this is why--very unusual in modern politics 
but also very refreshing.
  I found it interesting that those newspapers that were not very good 
to his ideas in life, in death gave Paul great credit for raising 
ideas, for standing by his principles, for never wavering and never 
causing for a moment any constituent anyplace to wonder where he stood. 
You knew where Paul Wellstone stood.
  There are two things, of a great many, that stand out in my mind. One 
day I sent around a memorandum to Senators saying we were going to 
visit a youth detention center in Maryland and I wanted to know if 
anyone wanted to come along. Paul Wellstone called me and said: I would 
like to come.
  The two of us, with some staff, went out to a youth detention center 
and spent the entire morning sitting in that youth detention center 
talking to kids, kids who had committed murder, kids who were drug 
addicted, kids who had been in the worst kind of trouble one could 
possibly imagine. Driving back to Capitol Hill after this visit, I once 
again got another glimpse of Paul Wellstone's soul. He said: If someone 
had cared about those kids early in their lives they would not be there 
today. Someone needed to help those kids at the right moment, and we 
can do that in the Senate.
  To Paul, that visit was, how can we reach out to help people who need 
help at a time when they desperately need that help?
  In the last couple of months, Paul came up to me while we were in the 
well of the Senate, and he said: I was campaigning in Minnesota and I 
went to an independent auto repair shop, and the major automobile 
manufacturers would not give the computer codes to these independent 
auto repair shops. These small independents are telling me they cannot 
work on the new cars. They do not have the computer cards for the 
carburetors and all those things they have to have to work on those 
cars.
  He said: That is unfair, and it is going to drive those folks out of 
business. This is going to kill the little guy.
  He asked if I would hold a hearing on this in my Consumer 
Subcommittee. I said of course I will. We put together some information 
on it. The day of the hearing came and Senator Wellstone was to be the 
lead-off witness. That was not enough for Senator Wellstone. As was his 
want, in the way he did politics, the hearing room was packed. It was 
full of mechanics

[[Page S10817]]

and independent repair shop owners from all across this country. I 
guess that hearing room holds probably 100 people, and there were 150 
people there. Paul had brought his people, the independent repair shop 
folks, to that hearing room as a demonstration of this problem, to say 
this problem ought to be fixed.

  Paul was the lead-off witness and as was typical with him, with great 
passion he made the case about the unfairness to the little guy, about 
the independent repair shops trying to make a living, and how what is 
happening is unfair to them.
  About 3 weeks ago, right before we completed our work and left for 
the election, Paul came up to me on the floor of the Senate during a 
vote. He was holding a sheet of paper. He was flashing this paper and 
saying: We won. His point was that the automobile manufacturers had 
reached an agreement with the independent repair shops, and that 
problem had gotten solved. For Paul, it was about the little guy versus 
the big guy, about those who did not have the power and those who did.
  It was always that he wanted to stand on the side of those who did 
not have the power, those who needed help. That was so much of Paul 
Wellstone's life.
  There is much to say, and my colleagues, I am sure, will say it when 
we talk about his service to our country. It is sufficient now to say 
that one of our Senate desks is empty. The Senate has lost a wonderful 
friend.
  I conclude by quoting Thomas Moore, if I might, and relate it to 
Paul's service:

     Let fate do her worst; there are relics of joy,
     Bright dreams of the past, which she cannot destroy;
     Which come in the nighttime of sorrow and care,
     And bring back the features that joy used to wear.
     Long; long be my heart with such memories fill'd!
     Like the vase, in which roses have once been distill'd
     You may break, you may shatter the vase, if you will,
     But the scent of the roses will hang 'round it still.

  Paul Wellstone is no longer in the Senate, his desk is empty, but the 
passion of his ideas most surely will remain for years and years to 
come.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, today I reflect on the life of a friend 
and reflect on a political life. Politics is a fateful calling. The 
voters can end a political life in a few hours on any Tuesday. 
Promising public careers can be terminated abruptly. But like life 
itself, political life should be measured by its quality rather than 
its quantity. By that measure, Paul Wellstone, a man small in stature, 
became a giant in this Senate.
  This is not my desk in the Senate. My desk is the one directly in 
front of the desk where we honor the memory of Paul Wellstone. So many 
times I had to leave my desk because when Senator Paul Wellstone got 
wound up on an issue of great importance to him, you had better clear 
out. He had this famous desk with the long microphone cord, and he 
would roam all over this area, speaking with passion and commitment. I 
wanted to stand back a few steps to witness it because it was truly 
historic when he took to the Senate floor.
  I do not think there were any routine Wellstone speeches. With all 
credit to his staff, I am sure he embellished them in the certain 
qualities that even the best staff person could not add. There was no 
routine nature about Paul Wellstone in politics.
  I remember when he first ran. People kind of laughed about the idea. 
This professor from a small college in Minnesota is going to run 
against an incumbent Senator?
  We all know what that was about. This had to be a class project. He 
was going to go out and make his stand, make his speeches, and probably 
lose by an embarrassing margin. But then they started getting reports 
back from that early campaigning. This now famous green schoolbus, 
which I had a chance to see when I was in Minneapolis for the tribute 
to Paul Wellstone, had a platform on the back where he would stand like 
Harry Truman and make his speeches.

  I remember his television commercial which they replayed during 
tributes after he died in the plane crash. He said: You will have to 
listen very closely because I don't have much time. I don't have much 
money and I have to tell you everything. This is my home; this is where 
I work.
  It was a classic presentation of what he was all about in just a few 
seconds.
  At the end of the campaign after he won and surprised everyone, there 
is a photo of Paul, Sheila, and Marcia when Paul agreed to finally 
retire the pair of shoes he wore throughout the campaign. What a sorry 
pair of shoes. He was no slave to fashion, to say the least.
  In his campaign in the Senate, I can recall he was admonished by a 
colleague to go home and change his shirt because it did not look like 
a Senator's shirt. He did not think of those things. Those things were 
so inconsequential to his view.
  He thought about the important things, the really important things. 
He reminded us time and again of how those things are overlooked. You 
draw together 100 Senators across the United States, you put the 
national political agenda in front of us, and Paul Wellstone found it 
hard to believe that we could miss so many important things.
  Sheila was the same way. His wife Sheila, the unpaid Senator to 
Minnesota at his side, worked on issues such as domestic abuse, 
inviting all of us to come to an art center she had regularly to 
highlight what victims were expressing through their art in terms of 
domestic abuse.
  We used to talk about Paul Wellstone's amendments on the floor. They 
were great amendments. Some of them did not get a great number of 
votes. We used to speak in the caucus about the so-called Wellstone 
amendments. We used to have competition to make sure that he got enough 
votes so it was not called a Wellstone amendment. And he said, I win 
some of these amendments. And he did. Without fail, every one of the 
amendments challenged every one of us to look at the national agenda 
and look at America from a different perspective.
  We get caught up in the life of public service and forget the people 
that Paul Wellstone never forgot. I think back to some of them. Paul 
Wellstone did not make any bones about the fact that he opposed the 
Vietnam war. During the 1960s, when many of us were in college and that 
was a dominant issue of the time, he was opposed to that war. But you 
would find, as I did in his tribute in Minneapolis, the veterans groups 
coming out in large numbers to pay tribute to Paul Wellstone. There was 
no separation between them. Paul Wellstone opposed the war, but he did 
not oppose the warriors who came home. He became their champion in the 
Senate.
  When people would bring up his own military record, or lack of it, or 
his own position on Vietnam, he would always be able to rally the 
veterans of Minnesota who would say, we are for Paul Wellstone because 
he fought for us to make sure we were not forgotten when we came home. 
That is the kind of person he was.
  I think of the debate on education in the Senate, the no child left 
behind bandwagon. I was on it. What a big bandwagon it was. It was the 
President, the leaders, the Democrats and the Republicans in the House 
and Senate, liberal and conservative alike. We would all be for no 
child left behind. But not Paul Wellstone. Paul Wellstone was the one 
voice saying, wait a minute, we may be going too far here. High-stakes 
testing for kids can destroy their lives in the future. Are we moving 
too fast without thinking about the children and what it could be doing 
to their lives? Again and again, Paul Wellstone forced us all to slow 
down even as we were involved in some political movement that seemed to 
have great force behind us, to stop and think about the actual people 
affected, the children, the teachers, the families.

  He was first and foremost a teacher himself, at Carlton College and 
in the Senate. Time and again, he taught us. He never taught us better 
than the lesson on mental health parity. Paul Wellstone realized that 
our treatment of mental health in the United States of America in the 
21st century is shameful. It is disgraceful. He told us over and over 
that we treat people with mental illness as if they are suffering

[[Page S10818]]

from some curse rather than some illness. He begged us time and again 
to treat fairly people who suffer from mental illness.
  I join with everyone here today, all the Members of the Senate who 
have given speeches and nice comments about Paul Wellstone, all the 
members of our government, from the President on down, who said what a 
great man he was and great values he brought to public life. Members 
can prove it by passing this Wellstone-Domenici bill for mental health 
parity and do it on an expedited schedule. Paul Wellstone, if he were 
here today, would say: Forget the speeches, forget the flowers; pass 
the bill, help some people. That is what government is supposed to be 
about. That is a challenge to us.
  We ought to mark our calendar today. Here we are, November 12, 
thinking about the challenges this country is going to face. Instead, 
step back and say: Where will we be 2 or 3 months from now dealing with 
mental health parity? Will we have done enough? Paul Wellstone led that 
fight in a way that was classic Wellstone.
  In the debate he would know, many times, that the forces were against 
him, that he did not stand a chance. He would stand here with such 
passion and commitment and make these speeches, hour after hour, if 
necessary, always respectful of his opposition, always on the Senate 
floor, even for those who saw the world in completely different terms, 
but always committed to what he was fighting for.
  They tell us the politics of Paul Wellstone are now out of fashion. I 
don't believe that for a second. You ought to know that since Paul 
Wellstone passed away, many in the Senate have been trading phone calls 
late at night in their homes talking about not only Paul and the great 
loss of Sheila and Marcia and the three campaign workers and the two 
pilots, but reflecting on ourselves and why we are here. Paul would 
like that. Paul would like that his passing would cause us all to think 
a little bit harder about who will carry on his fight.
  I have heard a lot of us in these conversations, my colleagues and 
myself, talking about what we need to do to make sure that voice is not 
silenced in the Senate, to make certain that Paul Wellstone's passion 
and commitment live on. That is the greatest tribute of all.
  For 6 years, I served in the Senate with Paul Wellstone. For 2 years, 
he was over my shoulder at this Senate desk.
  For every Member of the Senate, Paul Wellstone will always be over 
our shoulder keeping an eye on what we do, listening to our speeches, 
asking us in real human terms whether we are forgetting someone in the 
process.
  The victims who cannot afford lobbyists in Washington, DC, the poor 
and dispossessed who may not even have the will to vote, let alone to 
participate in this process, the people without the resources to be 
heard, who is going to speak for them? Paul Wellstone did. Those who 
stand in tribute to his memory should make certain that voice is never 
silenced.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Mexico.
  Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, I will also say a few words about Paul 
and Sheila Wellstone. Paul and Sheila were good friends of my wife 
Anne, my son John, and myself. We met shortly after they arrived in 
Washington for Paul to take up his duties in the Senate. Our friendship 
grew over time. Friendship came easily to Paul and to Sheila because 
they had a genuine interest in and a compassion for other people. So on 
a personal level, Paul and Sheila will be greatly missed.
  On a policy level, they will also be greatly missed in this Senate. 
Paul believed strongly that government should and could help improve 
the lives of average people. He championed better education for our 
children, better access to health care, particularly mental health 
care, as my colleague from Illinois has described. He championed a 
decent wage for workers. Any issue that presented a choice between the 
public interest and a special interest, there was no question where 
Paul stood.
  Sheila was also a fierce advocate for policies in which she believed. 
Her focus for many years was on the problems of domestic violence, and 
she and Paul helped spotlight that problem. They did much to put it on 
our national agenda. Paul said what he believed. He voted his 
convictions, even when those convictions placed him in a small minority 
in the Senate. He was proud to proclaim himself a Liberal in an age 
where most Americans have been persuaded that liberal is a pejorative 
term.

  The truth is that his views, when not distorted by his opponents, 
were very much endorsed by the majority of the Americans. His core 
belief was that those who are less fortunate should be helped to obtain 
the tools with which to succeed. That belief is shared by most in this 
great country. His service in the Senate was an effort to implement 
that belief.
  When serving here in the Senate, one is always aware that the 
imperative to do what is right sometimes conflicts with the desire to 
be reelected. Paul always chose to do what he considered right and damn 
the consequences. He came to the Senate with a clear intent to make a 
difference in the history of his nation, and he succeeded. The death of 
Paul and Sheila and their daughter, their staff and pilots, was a great 
tragedy for our country. It was also a great tragedy for this Senate. 
The Senate will be a lesser place without Paul Wellstone.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a 
quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I rise today, along with my colleagues, 
to pay tribute to the memory of our tragically departed friend and 
colleague, Senator Paul Wellstone, and to remember his life partner 
Sheila, their daughter, and the others who lost their lives in the 
plane crash.
  We send our condolences and our prayers to the families of all of 
those who were involved.
  Whenever Senator Wellstone came to the floor of the Senate to fight 
on behalf of our Nation's most vulnerable, to fight for economic 
fairness, for working men and women, to fight for quality public 
education and health care for all our children, can't you just hear his 
voice now--standing up over and over again to fight and to speak out in 
behalf of the people he represented--to protect our environment.
  In thinking about Senator Wellstone, I thought of the words of 
Frederick Douglass in 1857 when he said:

       If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who 
     profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation want 
     crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without 
     thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful 
     roar of its many waters.

  Paul Wellstone was ready to fight for progress. And he was unafraid 
of the war that followed. In fact, he embraced it.
  Paul Wellstone believed the status quo can never be a cause but, 
rather, must be the constant casualty of time in any nation dedicated 
to equality and justice and freedom.
  Did he win every battle? No. But the very fight of Senator Paul 
Wellstone ennobled the Senate and enlightened this Nation by giving 
voice to the challenges that confront us.
  I would like to read from a speech that Senator Wellstone gave to 
graduating students at Swarthmore College. The passion of Paul's words 
reminds us of the shame of passivity, the passivity of standing back 
and watching millions of families slide into poverty, and our Nation's 
future slip away from them.
  Senator Wellstone asked:

       How can it be that in the United States of America--today--
     at the peak of our economic performance--we are still being 
     told that we cannot provide a good education for every child?
       We are still being told that we cannot provide good health 
     care for every citizen.
       We are still being told that people can't look forward to 
     jobs that they can support themselves and their children on.
       We're still being told that we cannot achieve the goal of 
     having every five-year-old come to kindergarten ready to 
     learn.
       How can it be that we are being told that we cannot do this 
     at the peak of our economic performance?

[[Page S10819]]

       I say to you today that it is not right. It is not 
     acceptable. We can do much better, and if not now, when? If 
     we don't do this now, when will we do it as a nation?
       That is a betrayal of our heritage. The impoverishment of 
     so many children is our national disgrace.

  Senator Wellstone did not pull any punches. Yet he was not a cynic 
either. He believed that by giving wings to the nobler angels of our 
Nation, we could place progress in the wind.
  In the same speech I was quoting from, Senator Wellstone closed, 
urging people to get involved with politics and public service and 
become those nobler angels whose wings would give flight to change and 
to justice. He said:

       I do not believe the future will belong to those who are 
     content with the present.
       I do not believe the future will belong to the cynics, or 
     to those who stand on the sideline.
       The future will belong to those who have passion, and to 
     those who are willing to make the personal commitment to make 
     our country better.
       The future will belong to those who believe in the beauty 
     of their dreams.

  We will miss Paul Wellstone's leadership, his voice on this Senate 
floor. We will miss the beauty of his dreams of an America where the 
most vulnerable among us are valued, where all of our children are 
cherished, and where no one who gets up and goes to work in the morning 
goes to sleep at night in poverty.
  But, Paul, while we will miss you coming to the floor of the Senate 
to share those dreams, I promise you those dreams will not die.
  Thank you, Mr. President.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Nelson of Florida). The Senator from 
Alaska.
  Mr. MURKOWSKI. I wish the Presiding Officer a good afternoon.
  Mr. President, I, too, would like to lend a few comments to one we 
fondly regarded as the ``Little Giant,'' Senator Paul Wellstone.
  I, obviously, had an opportunity over the years to converse, discuss, 
debate, agree--occasionally disagree--with our friend who truly 
believed in his cause, a cause that was perhaps more liberal than my 
own, but a cause that was reflected on what makes the Senate so unique; 
that is, the cause of the balance that we have, more or less a 
mainstream of thought that prevails in the Senate. But in many cases it 
is brought about by those who have very active views, whether they be 
liberals or conservatives.
  But Paul Wellstone did represent, if you will, the pendulum in the 
Senate. His contribution was one of activism, of standing for the 
underdog, of reflecting on the needs of some we can never properly 
repay; specifically, the veterans of this Nation who have given so much 
so that we can live in the freedom of our democracy.
  As I have reflected, along with Senator Stevens and Representative 
Young, because of the vast distances between our State of Alaska and 
Washington, DC, and the tribulations of long flights back and forth, 
and the ever-increasing pressures to make dates, particularly during 
campaigns, having just run a campaign myself, why, I can recall the 
unpleasant evening flights in bad weather, with a recognition that 
people expect you to be present at a given time. And it is the demands 
that are constant pressures to try to fulfill obligations that cause 
each Member of both the House and the Senate to live, perhaps, on the 
edge. Unfortunately, that edge results in additional exposure that is 
associated with accidents. And we have seen that in the passing of our 
good friend Paul Wellstone, who, again, to me, is referred to as the 
``Little Giant'': small in stature but significant in what he believed. 
And his contribution, again, I think is measurable in one sense by 
those who knew him but in another sense by the legacy he leaves in this 
body.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wisconsin.
  Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, I rise to pay tribute to our colleague, 
Paul Wellstone.
  As with the loss of anyone so vital, so full of energy, and so dear 
to us, it is hard to believe that Paul is really gone. But as with a 
brother, or a father, or a great teacher, even if they have died, they 
leave a part of themselves with those who carry on. They are never 
really gone.
  I first met Paul before either of us had been elected to the Senate. 
I was meeting with different people as I considered a run for the 
Senate, and I heard about this professor in Minnesota who was planning 
to run in 1990. I had a chance to visit him at his home. When we met, 
we laughed at the idea that the two of us or either of us, would ever 
have been elected to the Senate.
  But then Paul went on to run a terrific campaign, without a lot of 
money, but with a whole lot of energy. When he won, he helped me and 
others to believe that we could do the same. I will always be grateful 
to him for that example, as I am sure are many others across the 
country who were inspired by Paul and the exceptional life that he led.
  So now we know that whenever a candidate runs a scrappy populist 
campaign, Paul Wellstone will be there.
  Paul Wellstone believed in clean elections. Paul was a strong, 
stalwart ally over the years that we served together in the Senate, 
working for campaign finance reform. He was an original cosponsor of 
the first McCain-Feingold bill--one of a handful of us, along with 
Senators Claiborne Pell and Fred Thompson and he was there all the way. 
Some have said that the law that we enacted this year went too far. 
Characteristically, Paul thought that it did not go far enough.
  Paul Wellstone wrote: ``The way in which money has come to dominate 
politics is the foremost ethical issue of politics of our time. We need 
to invite ordinary citizens back into American politics to work for 
what is right for our nation.''
  Whenever Americans reform our election campaigns, Paul Wellstone will 
be there.
  Paul Wellstone said: ``I don't represent the big oil companies. I 
don't represent the big pharmaceutical companies. I don't represent the 
Enrons of this world. But you know what, they already have great 
representation in Washington. It's the rest of the people that need 
it.'' That's what Paul Wellstone said.
  So, whenever there are voices standing up for the little guy, Paul 
Wellstone's voice will be there.
  There is a role that some Senators play of leading where not many 
follow because they know that it is right. Paul Wellstone had the 
courage of his convictions. He was not afraid to stand alone. Now that 
he is gone, there may come more times when some of us will be counted 
as the only vote against something.
  But whenever a Senator stands alone in the well of the Senate and 
casts a solitary vote because that's what he or she believes, that 
Senator won't really be alone because Paul Wellstone will be there.
  There is a role that some Senators play of reminding the rest of us 
of what is right, even when we don't necessarily like to hear it. It 
has been said many times, and it is nonetheless true, that like Paul 
Douglas, Phil Hart, and Paul Simon before him, Paul Wellstone was the 
conscience of the Senate.
  Whenever political expediency pulls us to vote one way, but our 
consciences pull us back the other, Paul Wellstone will be there.
  Paul Wellstone was a dear, sweet man, and a good friend to those of 
us who knew him. Yes, he had a puckish grin and a ready sense of humor. 
His passing brings a tear to our eyes.
  But whenever we think of that smile of his, Paul Wellstone will be 
there.
  The Bible says: ``Justice, justice shall you pursue.'' Paul didn't 
need to be told. That was who he was. Paul Wellstone believed in 
justice with every fiber of his being.
  Paul fought for justice for children who didn't have enough to eat. 
He fought for environmental justice, even for the poor side of town. He 
fought for social justice when it came to access to health care. He 
fought for economic justice when it came to a fair minimum wage and the 
ability of working families to protect themselves under the bankruptcy 
law. And he fought for justice among nations, and for peace. Paul 
Wellstone was the very embodiment of justice.
  And so, Paul Wellstone, here on the Senate floor, there is a hole in 
our hearts. We will miss you, dear friend.
  But we will still look for you. For wherever it is on this Senate 
floor, at a political rally, or at a town hall meeting somewhere on a 
cold, windy

[[Page S10820]]

day in the heartland of America whenever someone speaks for justice, 
Paul Wellstone will be there.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, Paul Wellstone was an extraordinary 
leader with a common touch. His dedication to the well-being of average 
Americans was unparalleled in Congress.
  He believed all of our citizens, no matter how humble their 
beginnings, or difficult their plight, had an equal right to happy, 
healthy, and full lives. He always made the time to hear the real needs 
of the people, and he always took the time to speak up for them in the 
U.S. Senate.
  For Paul, core beliefs were not something to be compromised. He 
understood as well as anyone in this body the give-and-take of 
legislation. But we always knew his values were at the forefront of 
every battle, and the people of Minnesota could count on him to fight 
for them with every ounce of his considerable energy and ability.
  Paul and I were seatmates. His desk is right beside mine on the 
Senate floor. But we were more than neighbors. Paul was our conscience, 
our guiding light. He turned overlooked needs and forgotten causes into 
real hopes for millions of Americans. For them, Paul Wellstone was 
their champion, their Senator.
  Earlier this year, Senator Wellstone chaired a hearing in the Labor 
Committee on an issue of great concern to American workers. A group of 
low-wage men and women were so excited by the prospect of the hearing 
that they took a day off from work, boarded buses, and headed for the 
hearing. When they arrived, they found the room full and the door 
barred. But Senator Wellstone heard about the workers who were waiting 
in the hallway, unable to get in. He invited them in and seated them on 
the dais among the Senators attending the hearing. For Paul, this was 
the way it was intended to be. For him, there was no distance, no 
barrier between the people and their elected representatives.
  Senator Wellstone did his homework. He knew the facts and he also 
knew the reality of everyday life for the people he cared for so deeply 
and served so well. When the Senate debated education policy, we knew 
Paul understood the issues thoroughly. We also knew Paul had spent more 
time visiting the public schools than any other Senator. He knew the 
challenges firsthand because he had taken the time to listen to 
parents, teachers, and schoolchildren so he could be a true voice for 
them in Washington.
  He taught us all by his example that Americans face challenges 
together. He was the embodiment of e pluribus unum, that out of many 
peoples in America, we are one Nation. He lived every moment of every 
day fighting to make our Nation even stronger, ever the beacon of 
opportunity for all of our citizens.
  Paul, we will miss you. You and Sheila and Marcia leave an 
extraordinary legacy for millions of Americans to honor, to cherish, 
and to carry on. Your outstanding contributions to the Senate, to 
Minnesota, and to the Nation will always be remembered.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Feingold). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  The Senator from Florida is recognized.
  Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, it is with a very heavy heart 
that all of us gather in the Chamber that will miss one of our own. It 
was with a very heavy heart we received the news on that snowy, icy day 
that we had lost, while flying in northern Minnesota, a wonderful 
companion and colleague and, along with him, his life's companion, and 
part of that family--his daughter.

  This freshman Senator had observed this Senator from Minnesota who 
had such energy and, along with it, such happiness. I can still see 
Paul Wellstone thrusting in the air those short, little jabs, while at 
the same time having that wry smile on his face, as he would teach us 
the way we should be as Senators--advocating for those who could not 
advocate for themselves, for those who could not hire with unlimited 
resources. He was there to stand and represent those folks.
  I went to Minnesota in August to do what I could for Paul Wellstone 
in a race that, interestingly, as November 5 approached--and Paul was 
so concerned about what was going to be the effect of his vote on the 
Iraq resolution, the fact he voted his conscience, the fact he stood up 
as the little giant against what was otherwise considered the tide. The 
fact he did that resonated among his constituents in Minnesota. We saw 
the result of that in the polls, for Paul had jumped up from an even 
race. He was up five, six, seven points before that fateful day his 
life was taken from us.
  I think back to that time in August I had gone out there to campaign 
for Paul. It was a time of mourning in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area 
because a lady police officer had just had her life snuffed out in an 
unusual kind of murder, where it was unsuspected. I went with Paul and 
Sheila that night to several events, including back to the source of 
that crime, at a project where so many of the community leaders had 
turned out. I watched Paul as he interacted with those grieving 
constituents, as they all came together in a resolve to heal the wounds 
in that community and bring the races together, instead of dividing 
them, as so often might have been the case in a very unfortunate 
circumstance where a police officer had lost her life.
  I went to what was called the ``national night out''--a remembrance 
of what communities can do in coming together.
  I went to two or three such events on that evening I visited with 
Paul and Sheila. I watched the interaction of him with Minnesotans. I 
saw that it was the same Paul Wellstone that I saw interacting with 
Senators in this Chamber, in our caucuses, in our luncheon meetings, in 
the cloakroom, and in the committee meetings. It was the same friendly, 
highly intelligent man, always offering that smile, getting from place 
to place with that limp in his gait as a result of an old wrestling 
injury. And he was so attractive. He was attractive to us as a friend 
and a colleague. He was attractive to the folks of Minnesota as their 
Senator.
  I went to their home, a modest, very comfortable, very appropriately 
appointed duplex townhouse, close in so he could be where his 
constituents were. It was easy access for him, even though with that 
limp; it had a set of stairs, at least two, if not three stories. It 
was so comfortable as a retreat for him, made so by his lifelong 
companion Sheila, who was at his side throughout that campaign and who 
was at his side throughout his professional career, including his 
career in the Senate.
  Then when I was in Minnesota, I talked to his kids. This is not his 
immediate family kids. This was the extension of Paul Wellstone, the 
professor, the extension of Paul Wellstone, the Senator, who had 
legions of young people, some in their middle years, who went door to 
door telling why those Minnesotans should vote and continue him in the 
Senate.
  I saw their conviction as I talked to them basically to share a 
number of stories I had as a Congressman going door to door. A lot of 
those experiences we shared were quite humorous, some of the unexpected 
experiences when one goes knocking on doors. I explained to them, with 
a bit of overstatement, that western civilization depended on what they 
were doing, going door to door. We all had a good laugh about that.
  They were committed. They were committed to Paul Wellstone. They were 
committed for the kind of person he represented, and they were doing 
the job and they were very effective. Their number had multiplied many 
times over so that as it came to that fateful day, there were legions 
of some 4,000 of those young people who were canvassing Minnesota.
  That says a lot about the kind of person Paul Wellstone was and how 
his memory will live; that young people believed enough in him that 
they would spend all day in a thankless job of going door to door.
  I remember so well the Paul Wellstone we loved around here. He

[[Page S10821]]

was not afraid to take on any foe. He was not afraid to take on any 
subject where he felt he could offer something of substance to the 
discussion, and as far as this Senator is concerned, it often made the 
difference because it was done with dignity, it was done with passion, 
it was done with energy, and his orations were done with great 
conviction.
  That is a great example. That is a great role model for all of us. We 
will miss him deeply.
  I remember when I came to the Minnesota airport for that memorial 
service. Someone met me at the gate and escorted me to the place where 
we were all to huddle up and then board the buses. As I walked in to 
that waiting room, what stared me in the face was a simple poster that 
said: Wellstone for Senate. I remember almost having my breath taken 
away as I realized that he was not going to be with us in body anymore. 
But he certainly will continue with us in spirit.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania.
  Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, the Senate is greatly diminished with the 
passing of Senator Paul Wellstone. As we see the bouquet of flowers on 
his desk, we can see Paul in action, speaking out, speaking up 
indefatigable on the issues of concern to him.
  He undertook a very difficult campaign back in 1990 against the odds, 
against a popular incumbent Senator. He was able to mobilize students, 
activists, people who believed in what he believed in because he was 
always a man with a cause. All the time he had a point. He did not mind 
being a dissenter.
  People who may be listening to this session of the Senate do not 
know, but there is a little card at the desk on each side, Republicans 
and Democrats. When the Senators come in and vote, there is a check. It 
is not easy, when, say, there are 50 members of the party and 49 checks 
are on one side, to vote against the 49, to have your name stand out in 
marked contrast as a dissenter, but Paul Wellstone did not mind that a 
bit.
  I believe in the history of our country the dissenters are vitally 
important, sometimes more important than the majority. Oliver Wendell 
Holmes, a Supreme Court Justice, was a prime example. He did not mind 
speaking out in dissent. And then he got another Supreme Court Justice, 
Louis Brandeis, to join him. So then instead of 1 to 8, it was 2 to 7. 
The brainpower of the 2 was characteristically better than the 7. For 
that matter, the brainpower of that one, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, 
was greater than the 8 of many occasions.
  Plessy v. Ferguson was a decision establishing the principle of 
separate but equal, having segregation in America, in a decision 
shortly before the turn of the 20th century, I believe in 1896. John 
Marshall Harlan was the one dissenter. That dissent became a clarion 
call for Brown v. Board of Education. Similarly, I think the dissents 
that Senator Wellstone registered have the potential to become a 
majority point of view.
  It was said earlier today, and I think with real meaning, that the 
legislation to establish parity for mental illness with physical 
illness would be an appropriate tribute for Senator Paul Wellstone. 
That legislation came within a hair's breadth of being passed in the 
spring of 2001 on an appropriations bill.
  Technically, we are not supposed to legislate on an appropriations 
bill, but that rule is honored and then breached very often, maybe not 
more often than it is observed but it is breached very frequently.
  We had passed it through the Labor, Health, Human Services and 
Education Subcommittee which I had chaired. It was a health bill. 
Senator Domenici was the principal champion on the Republican side, and 
Senator Wellstone was the principal champion on the Democratic side. I 
was long a cosponsor of the matter. In chairing the conference, we 
pushed very hard. It came within one vote on the House side--we had the 
Senate--of getting that legislation passed.
  It ought to be passed as a tribute to Senator Wellstone. It also 
ought to be passed for the benefit of the people who suffer from mental 
illness, which is every bit as debilitating as a physical illness.
  On October 25, I was campaigning, as I think most people were. I had 
just come from a political rally in Reading, PA, where Vice President 
Cheney had spoken for Congressman Gekas who was running in a hotly 
contested election against Congressman Tim Holden, two incumbents 
pitted against one another. I turned on the radio at about 1:30 eastern 
time and was shocked to hear the news that Senator Wellstone's plane 
had gone down. It brought memories of the plane that went down on April 
3, 1991, with Senator John Heinz, a vibrant, young Senator who had 
great potential, as did Senator Paul Wellstone.
  Flying small planes is an occupational hazard and everybody in this 
Chamber, all 100 of us, as well as the 435 Members in the other 
Chamber, and many other legislators and governmental officials, climb 
into small airplanes every other day. We all hold our breath as to 
whether we will be successful on the flight. Regrettably, we fly in bad 
weather, which sometimes we should not do but there is always a big 
crowd waiting and always some reason to finish.
  It was a great tragedy. Paul's wife Sheila was with him in the plane. 
One seldom saw Paul in the Halls of Congress without Sheila. She was 
not on the floor of the Senate, but she was with him constantly, 
holding hands, a very devoted couple. Their daughter Marcia was with 
them, also devoted in the campaign, a brilliant young woman at the age 
of 33.
  Senator Wellstone will be sorely missed in the Senate. There are many 
Paul Wellstone stories. I will mention one. I was managing the 
appropriations bill for Labor, Health, Human Services and Education. 
Senator Wellstone was in the Chamber bright and early. We started at 
9:30. He had an amendment. Sometimes it is hard to get amendments up 
onto the floor. His amendment provided that no Member of Congress 
should have a health insurance policy at Government expense that was 
superior to what every other American had available to him or her.
  When that amendment was brought up, it was through the distinguished 
senior Senator from Minnesota, who was smiling broadly. It was a very 
extraordinary amendment to make. It is pretty hard to make an amendment 
like that stick because it would have made President Clinton's national 
health insurance policy look entrepreneurial to the nth degree. It did 
not pass, even though the Democrats controlled the House and the 
Senate. Senator Mitchell, the majority leader in 1993, was a major 
proponent of health care, but the Clinton plan with its bureaucracy 
went down to defeat. To have a requirement that no Member of Congress 
could have a health plan that was superior in any way to what the 
Government provided for every citizen was really an extraordinary idea, 
to characterize it very mildly.
  I did not have to debate Senator Wellstone for very long before there 
was an avalanche of Senators who came to the Chamber. He really struck 
a nerve, and he struck a nerve because many people think that Senators 
and Members of the House have health insurance which is paid for by the 
Government, which is not true. We pay for the health service which we 
have, but we also have additional health service policies, Blue Cross 
and Blue Shield. To have legislation limiting what a Member could have 
to that which every other citizen would have at Government expense 
would be a great inducement to pass a widespread health insurance 
benefit, and perhaps we ought to do that. That was Senator Wellstone's 
idea. He debated it with fervor and intensity. It was an extraordinary 
debate. I do not think he got too many votes for his plan, but that did 
not diminish it in any way. That is the great quality of a dissenter. 
This Chamber will not be the same without Senator Wellstone.
  In the absence of any other Senator on the floor, I ask unanimous 
consent that my comments on homeland security be given as in morning 
business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Nelson of Florida). Without objection, it 
is so ordered.
  (The remarks of Mr. Specter are printed in today's Record under 
``Morning Business.'')
  Mr. SPECTER. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

[[Page S10822]]

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the 
quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, let me begin by thanking all of our 
colleagues who have already spoken here on the Senate floor this 
afternoon in tribute to our dear friend, Paul Wellstone. I join in the 
sentiments and would like to extend my sympathy and my prayers to the 
entire Wellstone family and the families and friends of the crew and 
staff members who also lost their loved ones just a few short weeks 
ago.
  Paul Wellstone, his wife Sheila, and their daughter Marcia, left 
quite a legacy. These are family who were working so closely together 
to help Paul in his reelection bid. So as we pay tribute to Paul today 
we must also, I believe, remember the dedication and the love of his 
wife and his daughter--his entire family. Each one of us understands 
our elections are many times a family effort. We see our spouses, we 
see our daughters and sons go out and campaign and spend time with us 
and spend time in other parts of our States. So I think we all can 
relate to this. In a sense, it makes this tragedy even harder for all 
of us to bear, to think this was not just a loss of Paul, but also of 
his wife and his daughter.
  The great English poet Alfred Tennyson wrote of a dear friend who 
died suddenly:

       God's finger touched him, and he slept.

  Recently God's hand touched our friend Paul Wellstone. Now he sleeps 
and now we mourn. The Senate will really never be the same without Paul 
Wellstone. Not only did we lose a colleague, but we also lost a friend, 
a good man, an ethical man, a leader, a true champion--a champion of 
the causes and the issues he believed in so passionately.
  As many of my colleagues have expressed already, Paul had a kind of 
drive and passion and spirit that was really unequaled in this body. 
But we will also miss his kindness, his resolve, and his unbelievable 
energy--energy he brought to every single task he undertook. Whatever 
it was, Paul did it with sincerity and he did it with great passion. 
Paul got things done. He was effective. That effectiveness came because 
of his energy, because of his drive, because of his determination, and 
it came because he understood what he believed in. He understood what 
he cared about. He understood what was important.
  It also came about because he could get along with people from both 
sides of the aisle. He really transcended politics in that respect. He 
knew people. He understood them. It was evident he cared about them. 
You never had any doubt when Paul Wellstone asked you how you were 
doing, how you were feeling, how your wife was, that he actually meant 
it. He actually cared.
  Arthur Ashe, the famous athlete, who also died too young, once said: 
``True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge 
to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at 
whatever cost.''
  That was Paul Wellstone. That was his mission. No cost was too great 
in his eyes when it came to protecting the lives of those in this 
society who could not protect themselves--as he said, ``the little 
people'', the poor people, the people who needed someone to help them. 
He worked so hard and so tirelessly and with such commitment to protect 
children, the elderly, the mentally ill. I had the privilege of working 
closely with Paul on a number of the legislative initiatives he cared 
so much about--the kind of initiatives that were intended to protect 
and improve peoples' lives, like job training--the bill he and I spent 
an awful lot of time working on--and mental health courts bills.
  Paul also cared deeply about the future of America's children. He 
wanted to ensure that every single child in this country received a 
quality education.
  He was instrumental in making sure that our transition to teaching 
initiative was included in last year's education reform law. And, in 
fact, at the time of Paul's death, he and I were getting ready to 
introduce a bill to expand the childcare loan forgiveness program to 
include preschool teachers. I intend to go forward and introduce that 
bill tomorrow. I know that is what Paul would have wanted. And, in his 
memory, I would like to rename that bill ``The Paul Wellstone Early 
Educator Loan Forgiveness Program.'' This legislation is just one of so 
many examples of what Paul stood for and cared so passionately about.
  It wasn't too long ago that this Senate lost another friend and 
colleague. That man was a dear friend of mine. That man was Senator 
Paul Coverdell. I was recently looking back at the Congressional Record 
at some of those firery and empassioned speeches that Paul Wellstone 
used to give on this Senate floor, and I came across a speech he gave 
in tribute to Senator Coverdell following his death.
  I was really struck by his remarks, because what he said in those few 
words about Senator Coverdell really capture today what we in this 
Senate think about Paul Wellstone.
  I would like to take just a moment to read to my colleagues what Paul 
Wellstone said on this floor on July 19, 2000:

       Mr. President, I want to speak about my colleague, Senator 
     Coverdell. I know other Senators have. I absolutely have 
     nothing rehearsed. There are many Senators who will speak 
     about Senator Coverdell probably in a more profound and 
     moving way than I can.
       There is one moment I want to remember about Senator 
     Coverdell because this small story tells a large story. We 
     had had a major debate about the Colombia aid package. 
     Senator Coverdell and I were in a debate. We did not agree. 
     It was a pretty good debate back and forth. I know from time 
     to time during the debate I would reach over and touch his 
     hand and say something to the effect: I just cannot believe 
     you said this; this is wrong--something like that.
       At the end of the debate, I said, because I believed it and 
     believe it: Senator Coverdell is a really good Senator.
       He smiled and touched my hand and said: Senator Wellstone 
     is a really good Senator.
       I do not know if the latter part is true, but the point is 
     that is the way he was. That is the kind of Senator he was.

  That is also the kind of Senator Paul Wellstone was.
  Paul Wellstone in that tribute went on to say this about our friend, 
Senator Coverdell:

       We talk about civility. He was just a beautiful person. I 
     really enjoyed him. We need a lot of Senators like Senator 
     Coverdell: Paul, you are wrong on the issues, but you are a 
     really good person.
       The Senate has lost a wonderful person and a wonderful 
     Senator, and the United States of America has lost a 
     wonderful person and a wonderful Senator.

  To Paul Wellstone today, I say that you, too, were a wonderful 
person. You were a wonderful Senator.
  Today on this floor, we honor what Paul Wellstone stood for, what he 
believed in, and what he accomplished here in this Senate. As a public 
servant, Paul touched the lives of his family, his friends and 
colleagues in the Senate, his constituents in his home State of 
Minnesota, and the lives of millions of people throughout the United 
States.
  I will not forget Paul Wellstone--none of us will. He is deeply 
missed and will always be remembered.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, as we have reconvened today, there is a 
void in this Chamber. The untimely passing of our friend and colleague, 
Paul Wellstone, brings a sadness to the entire Senate family.
  We are also touched by the loss of Paul's wife Sheila, his daughter 
Marcia, members of his campaign staff: Will McLaughlin, Tom Lapic, and 
Mary McEvoy, and the two pilots: Captains Richard Conry and Michael 
Guess.
  When I heard Senator Wellstone's plane had gone down in Minnesota, it 
was difficult for me to convey my thoughts. I thought of the countless 
hours I have spent, as a Senator now for 34 years, in small planes, 
flying around my State on campaigns and on official business.
  I recalled the day in December of 1978 when the plane carrying my 
wife Ann and myself and five friends, coming from Juneau to Anchorage, 
crashed at

[[Page S10823]]

the Anchorage Airport. The time that followed was a difficult one for 
my family. The death of a spouse, a colleague, a loved one, or a friend 
is never easy, but to lose that person in an accident, particularly one 
you survive, is worse because you will always know you never said 
goodbye.
  It was an ironic twist when I discovered Paul Wellstone's plane 
crashed in the same city, Eveleth, MN, where Alaska Congressman Nick 
Begich was born. As the Senate knows, Representative Begich and the 
House majority leader, Hale Boggs, were killed when the airplane in 
which they were flying was lost over Alaska in 1972.
  It is safe to say--and I think this is no surprise to anyone--that 
Paul Wellstone and I did not see eye to eye on much, but I respected 
Paul for fighting for what he believed and for his personal toughness 
that never let physical problems slow him down.
  We spent much time together on the subway going back and forth and 
became great friends. As a matter of fact, Paul and his wife came over 
to our home. Catherine and I were pleased to have dinner with him and 
Sheila on a personal basis.
  I admired Paul's commitment to his causes, particularly to his 
dedication to mental and physical health parity. As a young boy, I 
helped raise a cousin who was challenged by mental retardation, and I 
know the difficulties faced by those in that community. Senator 
Wellstone's compassion and determination has made a difference in many 
families across our Nation, many lives of people such as my cousin.
  Likewise, Senator Wellstone's wife Sheila was a great advocate. Her 
work on behalf of domestic abuse victims helped many women and children 
begin life anew, with the hope and encouragement that came from 
Sheila's work.
  Catherine and I cannot put into words the sympathy and sorrow we feel 
for Paul's family for the loss of their parents, their siblings, and 
their grandparents.
  Mr. President, grief is a process that helps heal the heart. We will 
always miss Paul, but we honor his memory by keeping after our 
business, as he did--testing our ideas on the campaign trail and here 
on the Senate floor. My friend, Paul Wellstone, would want it that way.
  Thank you very much, Mr. President.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President,

     Sunset and evening star,
     And one clear call for me!
     And may there be no moaning of the bar,
     When I put out to sea,
     But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
     Too full for sound and foam,
     When that which drew from out the boundless deep
     Turns again home.

     Twilight and evening bell,
     And after that the dark!
     And may there be no sadness of farewell,
     When I embark;
     For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place
     The flood may bear me far,
     I hope to see my Pilot face to face
     When I have crost the bar.

  Mr. President, one of our number has gone from our midst.
  I know that by now he has seen his Pilot face to face because Paul 
Wellstone has crossed the bar. He was not tall; yet mere feet and 
inches are no measure of a human heart. He could not be cool or aloof, 
for he knew that it is passion and commitment that drive human 
progress. He was not without infirmity, but the limitations of the 
flesh never hold down a robust and tenacious spirit.
  Paul Wellstone fairly burned with exuberance for life and for the 
causes that he cared about. We all heard Paul Wellstone as he spoke 
about those causes that he cared so much about. He always spoke with 
passion. A visit to his office is illustrative. Over the entrance to 
his private office is a huge enlargement of a snapshot of his former, 
now deceased, chief of staff, Mike Epstein. Most of us remember Mike 
Epstein, who used to be seen back here on the bench to my left as he 
sat listening to Paul and waiting with Paul. Paul Wellstone did not 
forget. He did not forget Mike Epstein.
  Once inside Paul's office, over the doorway three large photos can be 
seen of the faces of battered women. Paul Wellstone often spoke of 
those battered women in our population. He did not forget.
  On the walls of his private chamber are photos of Hubert Humphrey, 
John Kennedy, and on his desk is a bust of Martin Luther King. Paul 
Wellstone did not forget.
  Paul was a man of causes. He was a teacher. He was a man who stayed 
true to the things in which he believed. I can almost see him back 
there now beside the flowers that have so thoughtfully been placed on 
his desk as a token of our remembrance of him. I often heard him use a 
metaphor. He called it an old Jewish proverb. He would use it again and 
again, in speech after speech. He would say, ``You can't dance at two 
weddings at the same time.'' Senator Don Nickles is on the floor, and 
he remembers this and has indicated so by a smile. I never quite knew 
what Paul Wellstone meant when he said that you can't dance at two 
weddings at the same time. I never tried it, but I never was at two 
weddings at the same time.
  When he said, ``You can't dance at two weddings at the same time,'' 
he meant that one must not be false. That is the key. One must not be 
false. He meant that one cannot be all things to all people. He was 
thinking of the words of Shakespeare, who said: To thine own self be 
true. Thy can't now then be false to any man.
  He meant that one cannot say one thing and then do another. And he 
meant that one cannot say the same thing to two different people and 
mean two different things. It is a fundamental lesson and has special 
application to those of us who toil in the ruined fields of what passes 
for politics today. You cannot dance at two weddings at the same time.
  Paul Wellstone died tragically, but he lived heroically. He ran 
uphill against the odds and enjoyed and gloried in the experience. He 
was unique, he was priceless, and he was quite irreplaceable.
  I shall miss him, and we all shall miss his courage.
  I was most endeared to Paul Wellstone in the last days of his life. 
One day as we stood in the room together--we Democrats--and discussed 
the resolution concerning the Iraq war--which may come and which in my 
present thinking is likely to come--we stood over in the corner room 
there and the majority leader was there. My Democratic colleagues--most 
of them--were there; Paul Wellstone was there. We discussed the Iraq 
resolution. I remember Paul Wellstone as he stood and said to us, his 
Democratic colleagues:

       You all do what you must, but I am going to vote against 
     the resolution. But don't worry about me. I will explain it 
     to my people. I think I am doing the right thing, and I 
     believe my people will feel also that it is right. But if 
     they don't, they will vote. However that vote comes, whatever 
     that decision is, I will live with it.

  I thought that took a great deal of courage. Here was a Senator who 
was running for reelection and he had already reached a decision in his 
mind that he was going to take a stand, and that was going to be a 
principled stand. His future in politics could go one way or another; 
but regardless Paul Wellstone was going to take that position. He was 
going to go to the people with it. He was willing to debate it with the 
people, and he felt that in the final analysis the people would uphold 
him in the position he had taken.
  There were not any ifs, ands, or buts. That was a position he took 
right over in that room, in the corner, near the elevator on this 
floor. That, more than anything I saw in Paul Wellstone's life when he 
was here in our midst for 12 years, that, more than anything else, 
impressed me. I thought: Oh, if all Senators were like that. If all 
public officials were like that, who would take a principled stand, 
state the reasons for that stand to the electorate, and let them make 
their choice. Of course, he wanted to come back to the Senate, but he 
knew very well that particular stand, in the climate in which we find 
ourselves, might mean he would not be reelected. And in the minds of a 
lot of people, the likelihood would be perhaps he would not be 
reelected. He took that stand. That told

[[Page S10824]]

me something about that man I had never seen before in him.
  That is the kind of courage that is found in men and women who are 
not only willing but are proud to stand up for their convictions and 
win or lose. They are determined to do it that way because they feel 
that is for the best interest of their country. That is the way Paul 
Wellstone felt. But that, more than anything else, watching him and 
listening to him on that occasion and knowing he was heading out of 
here in a very close election, which at that point he probably was a 
little behind--and I think he was. But he went. He made that decision. 
He voted that way. He went to the people and, from what I can 
understand, he was winning. His points were going up. He was going up. 
So the people, even though some of them--many of them--may not have 
agreed with Paul, admired a man of conviction. That is the kind of man 
they wanted in this body.
  I will always remember Paul Wellstone for that demonstration of 
conviction, that demonstration of integrity, that demonstration of 
courage, that demonstration of character. So his spirit, as long as I 
am here, will always permeate this Chamber.
  I never was close to Paul Wellstone. I cannot say I am close to a 
great many Senators here. That is not their fault. We are all busy 
people. But that drew me close to Paul Wellstone.
  We owe a great debt to the people of his beloved Minnesota and his 
wonderful family for sending him to serve with us for a time. I fully 
believe if Paul Wellstone had lived, he would have won that race. That 
Senator we would have had back.
  I went to that memorial service. I went to Minnesota. I went there 
when Hubert Humphrey died, and I went to the memorial service for Paul 
Wellstone. I was at that dreg gathering. I was struck by the size of 
that tremendous gathering of people singing songs, speaking. I wondered 
about this man, what kind of hold he must have had on the hearts of the 
people of Minnesota to draw a huge audience like that in a memorial 
service.
  I also believe in my heart that the memorial service veered off on a 
path that probably was not intended, and I felt badly about some of the 
things that happened there--about the treatment, not only impolitic, 
but the discourteous treatment that was accorded to the minority 
leader, Mr. Lott. I did not know about the treatment by which he had 
been embarrassed. I did not know about that until after it was over. 
But I felt as time went on that I was in a strange meeting, and I 
believe that but for the veering off course by that meeting Walter 
Mondale would have been elected. In any event, that is in the past and 
cannot be revisited.
  We will all miss Paul Wellstone. I do not think that he would have 
wanted things to happen as they did in that particular meeting, but 
that being said, I think Paul Wellstone's spirit will live on.
  I regret the strange twist of fate that took his wife and his 
daughter and the members of his staff to their untimely ends. But as to 
Paul, we owe him a great debt. I think I can best say his spirit will 
live on by repeating the words of Thomas Moore:

     Let fate do her worst, there are relics of joy,
     Bright dreams of the past that she cannot destroy,
     That come in the night-time of sorrow and care,
     And bring back the features that joy used to wear.

     Long be my heart with such memories filled,
     Like the vase in which roses have once been distilled,
     You may break, you may shatter the vase if you will,
     But the scent of the roses will hang round it still.

  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oklahoma.
  Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, it is a sad occasion that we see flowers 
on the desk of Paul Wellstone memorializing his service to this country 
and to the Senate.
  Paul Wellstone served very ably in the Senate for 12 years. I had the 
pleasure of working with him, and I had the pleasure of opposing him on 
many occasions. Many times, I would always say in the heat of the 
battle that Paul Wellstone had intensity, he had passion, and he had 
conviction. As Senator Byrd mentioned, those are qualities and traits 
that are very much needed in the Senate.
  October 25, when Paul Wellstone was killed along with his wife Sheila 
and his daughter Marcia, in addition to three staff members and a 
couple of pilots, was a real tragedy to the Senate family. 
Unfortunately, we have lost a lot of Senators through airplane crashes. 
Many of us have been in planes under questionable circumstances. It is 
a tragedy we hate to see. I remember receiving the phone call and the 
words were ``oh, no,'' when it was confirmed.
  As many of our colleagues, I went to Minnesota for the memorial 
service on October 29 to express our condolences and sympathy on the 
loss of a colleague. We wanted to show support to his family, friends 
and constituents and say that, yes, he was a valuable Member of the 
Senate and we hated to lose him. To lose him in such a tragic and 
unexpected way is really a loss for the entire country.
  I remember very well when Senator Wellstone made one of his last 
speeches. It was a tribute to Senator Helms. Philosophically, they were 
probably as opposed as they could be, but they were always gentlemen 
and they always conducted themselves as Senators. Like Senator Helms, 
every time we had a debate with Senator Wellstone that we disagreed on 
we always would shake hands, win or lose, and we did both. We won some 
battles, we lost some battles, but we were always friends and we were 
all colleagues.
  I remember Paul Wellstone being inducted to the National Wrestling 
Hall of Fame in Stillwater, OK--an outstanding American and a great 
tribute. This happened in the year 2000, but he was in the class of 
2001, a class that is very unique.
  Our colleague, Senator John Chafee, also deceased, was inducted into 
the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, as well as the current Speaker of 
the House, Dennis Hastert. They were a very special class of 
competitors who competed not only on the wrestling mat but also on the 
floor of the Senate and in the House of Representatives.
  Paul Wellstone earned our respect and our gratitude. We miss him, and 
we wish to communicate to his family, his friends, his associates, and 
his staff members, that we respected Paul Wellstone. We appreciate his 
service to this country, to his State, and to the Senate. Paul 
Wellstone will be missed by all of us who had the pleasure of calling 
him our colleague.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Dayton). The Senator from New York.
  Mrs. CLINTON. Mr. President, I join with my colleagues in taking 
these few moments to pay tribute to an extraordinary man and a great 
Senator. It is hard to come back to the Senate floor this afternoon and 
not be overcome by a sense of loss because this desk behind me, with 
the flowers, will never again serve as the launching pad for one of 
Paul Wellstone's memorable and impassioned speeches.
  Every American who shared Paul's determination to make our country 
all that it should be, all that it can be, all that Paul thought it 
must be, felt that same sense of loss. The Americans who only knew Paul 
Wellstone through tuning into C-SPAN or seeing the evening news, 
watching that energy flow, those arms flail about, that pacing up and 
down, may not have known the man but they too saw, as we his colleagues 
saw, that deep abiding love of our country. That is what motivated Paul 
Wellstone. He would come on to this floor, sometimes bursting through 
those doors, having to speak out, making it clear that there was some 
injustice that had to be righted, some problem that had to be solved, 
in order for us all to be the best we could be.
  That wrestling spirit that never let go really was with him in every 
encounter. He was a bear hugger. He was a caring, loving man, as well 
as a great advocate.
  His determination to improve our Nation, our education system, our 
health care system, our employment system, to strengthen civil and 
human rights and provide opportunities to those who live on the 
outskirts of American life, was unparalleled. Every one of us who knew 
him, and the millions who did not, were heartbroken by his untimely 
death.
  I had someone say to me that the voice for the voiceless has been 
silenced. That is not only a tribute to

[[Page S10825]]

Paul but it can also be heard as a rebuke to us. Was there only one 
among us who spoke for the voiceless, who hurt for those who were 
hurting, who carried the pain of injustice and exclusion under which so 
many suffered? One hopes that is not the case, but the only way to 
prove it is not is to ensure that our voices are heard loudly and 
clearly.
  This floor will seem empty without his words of conviction unless we 
fill it with our own. The ideals he represented and his steadfast 
belief that we, the people, through our government, acting together, 
can be a positive force, literally to change the future for those who 
might otherwise be left in despair, that commitment motivated every 
aspect of his daily life.
  Our Senate family and the people of Minnesota not only lost Senator 
Paul Wellstone, but we lost a great advocate in Sheila Wellstone and we 
lost a great teacher in Marcia Wellstone. His family shared his passion 
and his drive for justice. His staff were with him every step of the 
way and some tragically even gave their lives in service. Our thoughts 
and prayers are certainly with all those, along with the Wellstone 
family, who lost family members, friends, and colleagues.
  Before coming to the Senate, I had the great pleasure of working with 
both Paul and Sheila Wellstone. I admired Sheila greatly. Just as her 
husband, she was made of steel. That little package of energy that 
propelled her down these corridors and throughout the State of 
Minnesota looking for ways to help and to shed the spotlight she could 
bring into the darkest corners of human misery set her apart. She 
especially became a champion of those women and children who were 
victims of domestic violence. The stories she heard from women all over 
Minnesota and America did not stay her property; she told them to 
anyone. She would come to the White House and button hole me or the 
President. She would go anywhere to see anyone to make sure that 
someone whose small cry for help that she heard in St. Paul or Margie 
would be heard in Washington as well. She believed that the idea of 
violence-free families should be a reality in every home in our Nation.

  She and Paul, together, believed the diseases, the illnesses of the 
mind, should no longer be relegated to some back room where they would 
be brushed aside, ignored because of the stigma, the embarrassment 
attached to them historically. She encouraged Paul to join forces with 
Senator Domenici to transform each of their families' experiences into 
a national campaign to improve the lives of the mentally ill.
  Sheila and Paul were also instrumental in bringing to international 
awareness the horrific problem of trafficking in human beings, the 
modern form of slavery by which young women, young girls, are literally 
sold into bondage, into the sex trade, into domestic servitude. Sheila 
and Paul Wellstone were absolutely committed that this practice of 
degradation would end.
  When each of us heard the news that the plane carrying Paul and 
Sheila and Marcia went down, time seemed to stop. Many did not want to 
believe it. We kept asking our staff and others how it could be true. 
How could this have happened? Horrible events, tragedies of this 
magnitude, have a way of stopping time. But then we have to return. The 
clocks have to start moving again. We have to continue our journey into 
the future. But if we remember what that moment in time felt like when 
we realized our friend, our colleague, a great Senator, would no longer 
join us for our debates, then perhaps that tragedy can change the tone 
and landscape of our politics and our debates. Perhaps Paul's example 
in life, his legacy in death, will compel all to look inward, to ask 
ourselves what are we doing today with the same energy, the same good 
humor, the same fighting spirit that Paul Wellstone embodied to make 
life a little better for the people we represent, to give voice to the 
voiceless.
  Over the past weeks I have thought a lot about Paul Wellstone. I 
remember so many incidents and so many of his triumphs. He was there 
day in and day out. No issue was too small that it did not have his 
commitment behind it if he thought it would make a difference in 
someone's life. The Senate passed expanding insurance coverage for the 
mentally ill. I hope Senator Domenici's heartfelt plea and his long-
time commitment will help finally to pass his and Paul's dream into 
law.
  We increased access to child care for the working poor because Paul 
Wellstone knew what it meant to worry about your children while at work 
because you did not know the conditions they would be in, whether they 
would receive the quality of care they should.
  One of my favorite Paul Wellstone moments was that Paul and I were at 
a hearing he was chairing of the Subcommittee on Employment and 
Training. We had been receiving reports about a sharp increase in the 
numbers of unreported deaths and injuries among immigrant workers--many 
of them illegal, who found their way to our country and were put to 
work, despite the laws against it, for the cheap labor they provided--
who were not given the protection or the support or the respect they 
should have for the dangerous jobs they were performing.
  One of my State's newspapers, NewsDay, ran a powerful investigative 
report about the conditions in which immigrant workers labored in New 
York. Paul read it and contacted me right away. He wanted us to work 
together to find out what we could do to stop people from dying, 
literally dying, in New York and around America.
  Many who go to hearings around here know that not many people, except 
the paid lobbyists for the various industries affected, show up for the 
committee hearings. The lobbyists fill the chairs. They take the notes. 
They rush out to make the cell phone calls to report to their superiors 
and employers what is going on. But unfortunately, except on rare 
occasions, other people do not come.
  On that day, to our surprise, hundreds of workers flooded the halls 
of the Dirksen Building trying to get into our hearing, trying to tell 
their stories. Unfortunately, we had no idea this would draw such a 
crowd. The room the hearing was being held in was not big enough to 
accommodate everyone waiting.
  Paul and I conferred, and Paul said: I can't believe it. There are 
all these people outside. Some of them came from miles away. You can 
see his arms, as you hear those words, going back and forth. What are 
we going to do?
  Before I could answer, he got up, and in that bow-legged wrestler's 
stance and walk he had, he walked down from the platform, through the 
crowd, threw open the doors, told the Capitol Police that everyone was 
coming in and that there would be room. They could sit on the floor, 
they could sit in the Senators' chairs because he and I were the only 
Senators there. He would not keep the very people we were having the 
hearing about out of the hearing room.
  That was Paul. He was a people's Senator. Everyone was welcome. Every 
door was open. It was an unusual hearing, but it was a memorable one. 
Afterwards, he greeted each and every person who was there.
  It was this passion that got him up and fighting every day, even when 
he was in such pain, as some of us can remember, seeing him in pain on 
this floor, remembering how last year the pain was so intense he 
literally dropped to the floor of the Senate. He later learned that he 
was not just contending with the aches and pains of a Hall of Fame 
wrestling career but that he had multiple sclerosis. That did not stop 
him either.
  For any of us who inquired how he was doing, he brushed it off. He 
was not interested in any way or concerned about his own health. He 
wanted to talk to you about what we were going to do about unemployment 
insurance, what we were going to do about education, how we could turn 
our backs on all these children who would not get the resources they 
needed.
  During the debate on the education bill, Paul was the only member of 
our Education Committee to vote against it. We knew why. He warned that 
focusing our education system solely on improvements in standardized 
tests without a major increase in Federal funding was wrong. I agreed 
with that. I said so at the time in our committee. I will vote for this 
bill, but only if we have the funding.
  Here we are, a year later. We got the funding for 1 year and then the 
administration came in and no more funding.

[[Page S10826]]

Paul was right, as the distinguished Senator from West Virginia 
knows. Trust, but verify, when it comes to such promises.

  Senator Wellstone always stood by his beliefs. His last big fight, as 
Senator Byrd has so eloquently reminded us, was over two big issues: 
Certainly Iraq, what should be done, what will be done, what our 
obligations as Senators are to hold this administration accountable; 
and, here at home, the fight for unemployment benefits to be extended. 
For the life of me and for Paul Wellstone, with whom I spoke about this 
at length time and time again, it made no sense. How could we turn our 
backs on people who were out of work through no fault of their own, who 
needed a little bit of a helping hand? He would come to the floor, he 
would make that case, and we wouldn't go anywhere with it. We couldn't 
get our colleagues to support extending unemployment insurance one more 
time.
  Along with what I hope will be a lasting legacy of mental health 
parity, I truly request our colleagues and the administration to extend 
unemployment insurance, Paul Wellstone's last domestic battle, for 
people who will otherwise have nowhere to turn when those benefits are 
gone.
  I want to say also a word about Senator Wellstone's staff, because he 
certainly loved and respected his staff. As Senator Byrd has mentioned, 
his staff was a loyal, hard-working group who often accompanied Senator 
Wellstone to the floor and sat there watching him, getting energy from 
his excitement and passion. I want to name some of the names of those 
men and women who helped him do the work we honor today. Colin 
McGinnis, his chief of staff, and Brian Ahlberg, his legislative 
director, are two extraordinary public servants. My staff has enjoyed 
the privilege of working with them.
  My staff and I have also had the opportunity to work with Marge 
Baker, who led Senator Wellstone's efforts on the Subcommittee on 
Employment and Training, with Jill Morningstar, who was his legislative 
assistant on education and women's issues, with Rachel Gregg, who led 
his efforts to assist the working poor, as well as Patti Unruh, Ellen 
Gerrity, and Richard McKeon, who made up his team of health care 
advisers.
  I offer my condolences to each of his extraordinary staff members and 
I want them to know how much we appreciate the work they did for Paul.
  On October 15, at the close of his last debate, here is what Senator 
Wellstone said:

       I don't represent the pharmaceutical companies, I don't 
     represent the big oil companies, I don't represent the big 
     health insurance industry, I don't represent the big 
     financial institutions. But you know what, I represent the 
     people of Minnesota.

  That may be his most fitting tribute--the honor, the ability, the 
results he brought to the way he represented the people of Minnesota. 
He did it with passion and principle. We join in saluting his life and 
his service and we challenge ourselves to remember the reasons why so 
many are mourning him today. Each of us, try to live up to the standard 
Paul Wellstone set.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Jersey.
  Mr. CORZINE. Mr. President, I compliment the Senator from New York 
for her gracious and most appropriate words with regard to the service 
of the Senator from Minnesota, who was such a special person.
  I rise to add my words of respect and praise and thanksgiving for the 
life and leadership of my friend and colleague and, in fact, political 
hero. Paul Wellstone was a good man who did his very best to do good 
things--very simply, good things for others. With his wife Sheila, 
their lives were about service, service and advocacy for others. In 
fact--I think the Presiding Officer probably knows this--they may well 
have been the most unselfish people I ever observed. The drive was not 
to power. It was not to popularity. It certainly was not to wealth. It 
was to service--service to those without a voice. Paul Wellstone really 
did believe all men and women are created equal and therefore should be 
treated accordingly.
  As a friend, Paul was always supportive and full of counsel for a 
fellow progressive--or should I say liberal. While our paths to the 
Senate could not have been more different, our paths in the Senate were 
much alike. He was a pathfinder for me and for many others because of 
his personal passion and principle with which he was so secure--it was 
deep in his soul. It gave him vision. His words and deeds were an 
example for all who seek to lead. As he so often implored, our actions 
cannot be separate from our words. All men and women are created equal, 
and he believed our Nation must act, also, accordingly. He fought for 
that every day on this floor.
  We have heard about his principled fight for mental health parity. We 
have heard about his fight to make sure education was something other 
than high stakes testing, and to make sure welfare reform was about 
something other than reducing the numbers on rolls, but was really 
about reducing poverty levels; on labor rights and defending the right 
to organize, defending the right of working men and women to have 
access to the American promise on an equal basis with those who are 
granted more; and on women's rights, which we have heard so much about, 
and domestic abuse, in which he carried the words and deeds of his wife 
so ably; on veterans' care and the homelessness problems of our Vietnam 
vets. On these and many other issues he really was a man who spoke for 
those without a voice.
  Paul's passion and vision will be deeply missed. For those honored to 
have shared his life, it is now our responsibility to pursue his 
vision. His commitment to equality and justice must not be lost and, 
with God's will, it will not.
  To this challenge, earlier today I heard Senator Stabenow cite great 
words from Frederick Douglass that bear repeating. When you think about 
Paul Wellstone you think about how he handled himself in this world. 
Those words are:

       If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who 
     profess to prefer freedom and yet deprecate agitation want 
     crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without 
     thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful 
     roar of its many waters.

  Paul Wellstone led his struggle for freedom with thunder and 
lightning--his struggle for progress. We will miss him. We will miss 
his struggle. We must take it up.
  All of us pray for his family and the families of the others lost on 
that tragic day of the crash. Our hearts are saddened. And we, as 
Senator Clinton has so ably articulated, commend his loyal and 
dedicated staff, and those thousands of volunteers who made his voice 
multiples of what it otherwise would be, through their activism and 
organization. We say thank you for all of them. Our love goes out. We 
respect them for what they have done, and their service. We hope they 
will not turn away from the effort and the fight. We thank them 
all. They mourn. We mourn. But we must not quit. We will not quit. Our 
deeds must match his deeds in the days and years ahead.

  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, I rise to pay tribute today to two dear 
friends, Paul and Sheila Wellstone. The October 25 plane crash in 
northern Minnesota which took their lives was an incalculable tragedy. 
It deprived Minnesota of a brilliant Senator. It deprived my wife 
Barbara and me of two very dear friends. It deprived the poor and 
disadvantaged everywhere in this country of a most committed, eloquent, 
and passionate champion.
  If there is one word that I heard perhaps more than any other in the 
tributes that have been paid to Paul Wellstone, it would be the word 
``passionate.''
  Compounding the tragedy, the crash claimed the lives of Paul and 
Sheila's daughter, Marcia; three members of his staff: Will McLaughlin, 
Tom Lapic, and Mary McEvoy; and the plane's two pilots, Captains 
Richard Conroy and Michael Guess.
  Our hearts go out to Paul's sons and grandchildren, and to all of the 
families of those whose lives were lost. We think about what might have 
been. We

[[Page S10827]]

are reminded of just how ephemeral and precious life is.
  It is said that an obituary tells you what a person did and a eulogy 
tells you who a person was. I would like to talk about who Paul was.
  Paul Wellstone was the patron Senator of lost causes. By ``lost,'' I 
don't mean wrong. In fact, most of his causes were right. But many of 
them were at the moment unpopular.
  Paul Wellstone devoted his energies to fighting for the 
disenfranchised and demoralized, the lonely, and the isolated. He saw 
his mission in the Senate and in life as comforting the afflicted and, 
when necessary, afflicting the comfortable. In social justice circles, 
it is called ``speaking truth to power.''
  Paul knew what it is like to be the underdog. He literally wrestled 
his way into the University of North Carolina on an athletic 
scholarship. He overcame learning disabilities to earn a Ph.D. from 
that distinguished university. The civil rights movement inspired him 
to become active in politics. In 1990, he ran a seemingly quixotic 
campaign against an incumbent Senator who outspent him by more than 
seven to one. And Paul won. And he won again in 1996.
  I think Paul beat the odds because he gave hope to so many people who 
have been left behind. Paul was a friendly and warm person who learned 
and remembered everybody's name because he genuinely cared about them.
  More recently, Paul battled hip and back injuries and publicly 
announced that he had multiple sclerosis. When he made that 
announcement, he said--with characteristic wit and pluck--``I have a 
strong mind--although there are some who might disagree with that--I 
have a strong body, I have a strong heart, I have a strong soul.'' And 
that he did.
  Paul knew what it was like to be an underdog. So he devoted his life 
to fighting for the underdog. At Minnesota's Carleton College, where he 
was a professor, he protested the college's investments in companies 
doing business with pro-apartheid South Africa. He intervened on behalf 
of many farmers facing foreclosure. He joined the picket lines at a 
meat-packing plant. And when Carleton College's custodians went on 
strike, he taught his classes off-campus because he wasn't going to 
cross that picket line.
  Paul brought his unabashed idealism to the Senate. He voted against 
the gulf war in 1991. He voted against the welfare bill in 1996. He led 
a lonely fight against the bankruptcy bill, saying that it would enrich 
big credit card companies at the expense of ordinary people suffering 
``brutal economic circumstances.'' And the list goes on.

  One of his last votes that he cast was for the more multilateral 
approach relative to our situation in Iraq. During that debate, he 
argued as follows: ``Acting now on our own might be a sign of our 
power. Acting sensibly and in a measured way, in concert with our 
allies with bipartisan congressional support, would be a sign of our 
strength.''
  Paul often found himself in small minorities. He was, however, able 
to move the Senate on occasion through sheer conviction. For instance, 
he teamed with Senator Domenici to require health insurance companies 
to provide more equitable coverage and benefits to people suffering 
from mental illness. It was the right thing to do. It was the fair 
thing to do. And he prevailed.
  Life deals everyone setbacks and defeats. And Paul had more than his 
share, especially in the Senate. But he never became the least bit 
cynical as many people do when they suffer life's disappointments. He 
kept coming back cheerful and committed as ever. He was absolutely 
guileless. And I think that was the source of his popularity, which 
extended to people who vehemently disagreed with the policies that he 
advocated. Everyone admired the fact that he spoke from the heart, and 
he voted based on his sincere beliefs--not from political expediency. 
He believed in the power of ideas and causes, and in the power of 
government to help people. He was a formidable adversary. And he had 
that unique gift of being able to disagree without being disagreeable.
  T.S. Eliot wrote to a friend: ``We fight for lost causes because we 
know that our defeat and dismay may be the preface to our successors' 
victory, though that victory itself will be temporary; we fight rather 
to keep something alive than in the expectation that anything will 
triumph.''
  That wistful statement, to me, captures some of Paul Wellstone's 
approach to his duty. With indefatigable goodwill and cheer and 
sincerity, Paul always bounced back, always carried on, and always 
stood on principle--never on expediency. He wasn't afraid to be in the 
minority, even a minority of one.
  A friend of Paul's, Bill Holm, wrote a touching tribute that appeared 
in the New York Times the day after Paul died. I am going to put that 
column in the Record following my remarks, but I wish to quote from it 
briefly to underscore some of what the column says.
  Bill Holm wrote, ``Whatever Paul's height, he was one of the largest 
men I ever met. He filled rooms when he entered them. Size in a public 
man is an interior, not an exterior, quality. . . . He thought himself 
an athlete . . . and I suspect he saw his whole political life in that 
metaphor. He wrestled with the power of big money, military adventurism 
and penny-pinching against the poor. He meant to fight fair, but he 
meant to win.''
  The great suffragette Anna Howard Shaw remarked, ``it does not make 
so much difference perhaps as to the number of days we live as it does 
to the manner in which we live the days we do live.'' She could have 
been saying that about Paul Wellstone.
  Paul fought the good fight--usually against long odds. I think, 
because he was a wrestler, he knew it was always possible to snatch 
victory from the jaws of defeat. Sometimes you can be behind on points 
but suddenly pin your opponent seconds before the match is over. So he 
never gave up. He had an infectious optimism. That is why he was such 
an inspiration.

  He certainly lived his life with gusto. He showed that gusto in the 
way he consumed my wife's stuffed cabbage. We still have some in the 
freezer which we had preserved for the next dinner we were going to 
have with the Wellstones.
  Paul Wellstone may have stood 5 feet 5 inches tall, but he had the 
heart of a giant. As we mourn his passing, we celebrate his life. What 
a gift he gave to us all.
  I ask unanimous consent that Bill Holm's column, appearing in the 
October 26, 2002, edition of the New York Times, be printed in the 
Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                [From the New York Times, Oct. 26, 2002]

                   A Liberal With a Wrestler's Stance

                             (By Bill Holm)

       Minneota, Minn.--Paul Wellstone was an unlikely politician 
     in a place like Minnesota--land of walleyes, cornfields and 
     phlegmatic Scandinavians. He was an urban Jew, son of 
     immigrants, a college professor at the fanciest of 
     Minnesota's private colleges. And, probably worst of all for 
     his non-talkative constituents, he was a passionate orator, a 
     skilled rouser of rabble over issues he loved and an 
     unapologetic populist liberal.
       How did this man, who was killed yesterday in a plane crash 
     in northern Minnesota, ever manage a triumphantly successful 
     political career in which even many Republicans and 
     conservative Christians quietly scribbled the Wellstone X on 
     their ballots, hoping their neighbors wouldn't catch them 
     behaving like lefties?
       When I gave readings of poetry and essays, I often shared a 
     podium with Senator Wellstone at various rural conventions 
     and political gatherings. It was a remarkable experience, and 
     I learned very well to proceed rather than follow him. He 
     worked a house as well as Hubert Humphrey ever did.
       I remember a Farmers Union convention in St. Paul: Paul 
     Wellstone, a pugnacious 5-foot-5, stood at the dais between 
     the Farmers Union chairman and me, both 6-foot-5 
     Scandinavians.
       ``It's nice to join my Norwegian cousins here in St. 
     Paul,'' he said. He then proceeded in 20 minutes to bring the 
     audience cheering to its feet. If this had been a monarchy, 
     the farmers would have crowned him.
       I was next, with a few small and sensitive rural poems. I 
     had a sinking feeling that a master had bested me.
       Whatever Paul's height, he was one of the largest men I 
     ever met. He filled rooms when he entered them. Size in a 
     public man is an interior, not an exterior quality. Paul 
     charmed--and sometimes persuaded--even those hostile to his 
     unashamed liberal ideas by listening with great courtesy and 
     attention to unfriendly questions. He answered without 
     dissembling, without backing down from his own principles, 
     but with a civil regard for the dignity of the questioner.
       And he had the politician's great gift: an amazing memory 
     for names. I saw him once

[[Page S10828]]

     pluck a vote with this gift. He answered questions for 45 
     minutes in a room full of ordinary citizens whom he'd never 
     seen before. He began hs last answer this way: ``Your 
     question reminds me of Mary's concern.'' Mary, in the back 
     row, was 45 minutes ago. Mary, likely a rock-ribbed 
     Republican, blushed a little and smiled. One more vote.
       Even those who continued to disagree with Paul did not 
     question the sincerity of his idealism. He was sometimes 
     attacked for naivete (as in his brave vote against 
     authorizing the president to go to war with Iraq), but never 
     for dishonesty. He voted, as he spoke, from the heart.
       It's often forgotten that Paul, nearing 60 with a bad back 
     and a respectable batch of grandchildren whom he treasured, 
     began his rise in the world with a college wrestling 
     scholarship. His working-class parents had no money for 
     school, so wrestling earned him a doctorate.
       He preserved a wrestler's sensibility in both his academic 
     and political life. In 1998 I met Paul at a reception at the 
     Governor's Mansion just before Jesse Ventura, a professional 
     wrestler by trade, first occupied that house. How curious, I 
     told Paul, that the two most interesting politicians in 
     Minnesota at the moment should both be wrestlers. He replied 
     with a wry smile: ``But I'm a real one.''
       He thought himself an athlete, not an entertainer, and I 
     suspect he saw his whole political life in that metaphor. He 
     wrestled with the power of big money, military adventurism 
     and penny-pinching against the poor. He meant to fight fair, 
     but he meant to win.
       Not only Minnesota, but the whole country will feel the 
     absence of his voice and his bravely combative spirit. We say 
     with Walt Whitman: Salud, Camerado. We look for you again 
     under our boot-soles.

  Mr. LEVIN. I thank the Chair and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Stabenow). The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. HOLLINGS. Madam President, liberal? Worse, The London Economist 
called Senator Wellstone the most ``left wing'' Senator in the U.S. 
Senate. Yet, as the most conservative Senator, I found myself time and 
again fighting at his side.
  The year started with the Bush seduction of Senator Ted Kennedy on 
education. Senator Kennedy looked at the amount--$7 billion. President 
Bush looked at the thrust--prove that public education was a failure so 
that private education could be financed by the Government. Testing. 
Somehow the billions being spent by the States on testing was not 
enough. A Federal test was necessary.
  Failing schools would be closed. Failing students would be tutored. 
But most likely, the student failing for the lack of a competent 
teacher could find no competent tutor. For all this testing, the 
education bill provided no help for the student to pass the test. And 
for this, Senator Wellstone ranted and raved. But nobody listened. 
Senator Wellstone was liberal, but as a conservative I knew he was 
right. We both voted no.
  Next was the Bush tax cut. No doubt Senator Wellstone, the liberal, 
was the target for this initiative. For the purpose of Voodoo II, or 
Bush's Reaganomics, was to eliminate the resources of Government so 
that without the money there would be no programs. But in reality, 
programs persevered, with a horrific debt, and the devastating waste of 
interest costs. Senator Wellstone, the liberal, was for programs. I, 
the conservative, was for putting Government on a pay-as-you-go path. 
We both voted no.
  Then there was jobs. Fast Track--this was a device that Presidents 
use to control trade agreements. With it, the agreement submitted by 
the President could not be amended. Congress was required to vote it up 
or down, and, of course, no agreement was ever submitted until the 
White House had the vote fixed.
  To get NAFTA approved, President Clinton bought the vote with 
numerous favors not related to the agreement, such as defense 
contracts, cultural centers, and golf rounds in California and 
Arkansas. One could readily see that the intent was to create jobs 
south of the border. Sure enough, we lost 700,000 textile jobs alone. 
So, when fast track expired, we refused to renew it for President 
Clinton. Again, Senator Wellstone and I both opposed giving fast track 
authority to President Bush.
  ``Liberal.'' ``Conservative.'' Wrong references. Adlai Stevenson used 
to say it's not whether one is liberal or one is conservative, but 
whether one is headed in the right direction.
  Adam Nagourney of the New York Times writes of the ``homogenization'' 
of American politics. Politics has changed. Triangulation has taken 
over so that every party compromises, or triangulates, the other 
party's issues. Both are for tax cuts. Both are for saving Social 
Security. Both are for defense. Both are for the war with Iraq. Both 
are for homeland security. Both are against corporate corruption. 
Worse, money locks in this triangulation so that we are back to George 
Wallace's, ``There's not a dime's bit of difference between the 
parties.''
  But there is a fundamental difference. The Republicans know to 
campaign. The Democrats know to govern. Paul Wellstone came to 
Washington to govern. He could see the crying needs of the country: 
schools, health care, jobs, infrastructure, et cetera. And he was 
determined to do something to provide for these needs. But with the 
Democrats in control by only one vote, we abandoned governing. The 
needs of the country were abandoned and both parties went into high 
gear to campaign, with money controlling the issues. Y2K, free trade, 
corporate reform--money controlled with a refusal to even cancel the 
principal corruption: stock options. The Congress danced around the 
fire of intelligence failures, terrorism insurance, seaport security, 
rail security, energy policy, pension reform, prescription drugs--but 
no governing.
  Paul Wellstone was a fighter. The shortest fellow in the Congress, 
most of us couldn't touch his shoes. Today, there are no fighters in 
Washington, just campaigners.
  Mr. COCHRAN. Madam President, the tragic death of our colleague, Paul 
Wellstone of Minnesota, was such a sudden shock to all of us. It was 
hard to believe he had died. Paul was so full of life, and full of 
energy and enthusiasm. It was so incongruous, so unbelievable, that his 
life could be needed so abruptly.
  But, it was, and we continue to grieve and to miss him.
  Paul and I were friends. We also collaborated on legislation to help 
farmers and to find a cure for Parkinson's Disease and Duchenne 
Muscular Dystrophy.
  We often talked about our strategy for accelerating the research that 
is so important to the effort to conquer these threats to human life.
  He traveled to my State to see for himself the plight of the poor in 
the Mississippi Delta. He was sincerely interested in helping alleviate 
the burdens and problems faced by the poor people who lived in the 
Delta. I told him about the initiatives we had started and let him know 
I shared his concerns and that we were trying some new approaches such 
as the Delta Regional Initiative.
  Senator Wellstone will always be appreciated for the efforts he made 
to help those who needed help the most.
  Mr. FRIST. Madam President, the Senate has been a unique institution 
since its inception. We take great pride in our deliberative nature. 
Debate may take time, but it is time well spent. It is always better to 
pursue the right--rather than the rushed--course of action. This style 
of governance has served the American people well for more than two 
centuries.
  This does not mean the Senate is not a dynamic body. It is full of 
the same vibrancy that marks this great experiment called American 
democracy. For within this Chamber have echoed some of the most lively 
and spirited debates in our Nation's history. And outside this Chamber 
as well--in committee rooms and caucus meetings and other public 
forums.
  On Friday the Senate lost one of its most animated Members in Paul 
Wellstone. He was a proverbial ``true believer.'' Conviction was not 
something about which he simply spoke at opportune moments; he showed 
it time and again with his unabated enthusiasm for being a United 
States Senator. Paul Wellstone's beliefs rose from a deep and 
impenetrable well of principle.
  Indeed, Paul was a proud and unabashed voice for liberalism. His 
votes often landed him not only on the other side of Republicans, but 
on the other side of his fellow Democrats, as well. He was a man who 
simply did not blink in the face of political pressure. He stared it 
down without regard to price. Even if you did not agree with him, you 
admired him and the courage he so frequently displayed.

[[Page S10829]]

  I saw this first hand on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions 
Committee. There Paul and I served together on the Subcommittee on 
Public Health and the Subcommittee on Children and Families. We shared 
a common concern for the health of women and children and the mentally 
ill. He spoke out often on their behalf. He fought hard for them. And 
his passion for their well-being will be missed.
  Paul Wellstone was one of a kind. We were blessed to have him, his 
wife, Sheila, and his daughter, Marcia, as members of the Senate 
family. And the people of Minnesota and the United States were blessed 
to have him in their service. May we keep Paul and Sheila's sons and 
grandchildren and the families of all those who lost loved ones in our 
thoughts and prayers in the coming weeks.
  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Madam President, several days after this terrible 
tragedy, the loss of our beloved colleague, Paul Wellstone, his wife 
Sheila, his daughter Marcia, three loyal members of his staff and two 
pilots, we still remain in a state of shocked disbelief.
  We have lost a unique and gifted man, who embodied not only the 
independent spirit of his home state, but one that resides at the very 
heart of the American soul.
  A few years ago, when speaking on this floor about the loss of his 
legislative director, Paul claimed that ``sometimes the only realists 
are the dreamers. . . .''
  In many ways he could have been referring to himself, the cerebral 
political science professor willing to stand alone, when necessary, for 
what he believed.
  He had the common touch, and was an impassioned speaker, noted as 
much for his big heart as for his sharp mind.
  Elected as the only new Senator in 1990, Paul's crusading voice would 
not have had the same impact in the House of Representatives as it did 
in this Chamber.
  Only in the Senate could he have helped to lead the successful 
opposition, in 1991, to an energy bill that would have opened the 
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration, or five years later 
force a vote on a minimum wage increase.
  For two terms he fought tirelessly for increased funding for 
education at every level, healthcare that was accessible and affordable 
for all Americans, sweeping campaign finance reform, and farm 
legislation that sought to protect the small farmers.
  While he was, on the one hand, an ideological liberal, willing to 
speak with his conscience, Paul was also able to work with Republican 
colleagues on many occasions, and he was responsible for passing 
important bipartisan legislation, most notably the expanded insurance 
coverage for mental illnesses, with Senator Domenici.
  But Paul Wellstone's commitment to social justice did not stop at our 
borders. He was an outspoken champion of the poor and the powerless 
around the world, in Latin America, Asia and Africa.
  I remember when, back in 1996, I voiced concern over the plight of 
women and girls under the reactionary rule of the Taliban, Paul was one 
of the few who was receptive to the need for the United States to 
respond to such violations.
  In 1999, Paul and I introduced the ``International Trafficking of 
Women and Children Victim Protection Act,'' which established an 
interagency task force to monitor and combat trafficking, provided 
assistance to other countries that met minimum international standards, 
and withheld U.S. non-humanitarian assistance to countries that failed 
to meet these standards.
  To his eternal credit, it is worth noting that Paul had originally 
introduced his own bill, which contained much tougher criminal 
provisions and stronger protections for victims.
  He was a leading advocate for Tibetan autonomy, able to work closely 
with his ideological nemesis, Jesse Helms. In fact, the last time I 
worked with Paul was in cosponsoring an act to safeguard the cultural, 
religious, and ethnic identity of the Tibetan people and to encourage 
further dialog between the Dalai Lama and the Chinese Government.
  We must not forget that the world has also lost Sheila, Paul's 
wonderful wife of almost 40 years, and a passionate campaigner against 
domestic violence, and for the need to create violence-free families. 
Hers was a noble cause, a critical fight, that must be continued.
  Minnesota has produced some of America's most eloquent, committed, 
and honorable leaders. Hubert Humphrey, Harold Stassen, Eugene 
McCarthy, and Walter Mondale come quickly to mind.
  Even if he had not met such a tragic and untimely end, Paul Wellstone 
would have surely earned his place among this distinguished group. The 
fact that he has left us so abruptly, and left all of us so sad, will 
not diminish his achievements, nor weaken his message.
  To quote Paul:

       I still believe that government can be a force of good in 
     people's lives.

  We in the Senate should take these words to heart, just as we were 
truly honored to have had him among us. We are all the better to have 
known him and worked with him. He will be sorely missed.
  Mr. DAYTON. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Stabenow). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  The Senator from Minnesota is recognized.
  Mr. DAYTON. Madam President, it has been a very moving afternoon in 
the Chamber listening to my colleagues speak so eloquently about my 
good friend, the senior Senator from Minnesota. The words of my 
colleagues were very moving. It was touching to hear of their respect 
and their affection and their admiration for Paul Wellstone.
  I spoke earlier this afternoon about the Senator, my dear friend, and 
because others were waiting to speak I abbreviated my remarks. I wanted 
to close by noting, as others have so well, that Paul's remarkable 
achievements were not his alone.
  He was one of those people who, in his greatness, was able to attract 
great people to his side. He had extraordinarily dedicated men and 
women who worked for him, worked with him, gave of their time and their 
energy, their hearts and their souls to his work: Colin McGinnis and 
his staff here in Washington; Connie Lewis, Minnesota State director, 
and her staff in Minnesota were always with Paul and Sheila and 
extraordinarily dedicated.
  Of course, if you wanted to make a difference in Washington, if you 
wanted to try to move mountains and you were young and idealistic, who 
better to work for than Paul Wellstone?
  Many of his former students at Carleton College in Northfield, MN, 
went on to be his key staff aides. I used to tease Paul and say that is 
what he was doing during his time there; he was recruiting the best and 
the brightest to work on his campaigns and organize the State and to 
work in Washington and in Minnesota on behalf of the many causes he 
championed--Jeff Blodgett, who was managing his campaign for the third 
time and doing so with great skill, and according to the last published 
polls, with very successful results, and others in Minnesota who gave 
up their careers, family life, and set it aside to one more time bring 
the man they loved and in whom they believed to victory.
  Kari Moe, who was involved with Senator Wellstone's Washington 
office, was his chief of staff for years before. They are incredibly 
dedicated people each in their own right.
  Tom Lapic tragically was on the plane with Paul and lost his life in 
service to his friend and his country. Tom was the deputy Minnesota 
director. Several hundred friends and family came to his memorial 
service a week after his death. He was a man who touched people deeply, 
as did Paul. His wife Trudy and others shared their recollections, the 
wonderful qualities Tom had that complemented Paul, his calmness, 
virtually unflappable under any circumstances. Like Paul, he was astute 
and eloquent, and he and Paul collaborated on many of the words that 
Paul used in speeches. Tom was always by Paul's side offering his 
guidance and perspective.
  Will McLaughlin was on Paul's campaign staff. He was just starting 
his political career at the age of 23 in Minnesota. But everybody could 
see he was destined to be a star, a Governor or

[[Page S10830]]

a Senator, something special someday. He already had been elected 
President of his fraternity at the University of Minnesota. Politics 
was in Will's blood or maybe even in his genetic code. His father Mike 
McLaughlin was a long time Fourth District chair of the Minnesota 
Democratic Party, and he collaborated with the greats of the previous 
generation--Hubert Humphrey, Fritz Mondale, Eugene McCarthy, Joe Karth, 
Bruce Vento. Will's mother Judy McLaughlin was a close associate of the 
former speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives. He will be 
missed by his mother Judy and his siblings and his friends and those in 
Minnesota who never had a chance to get to know him.
  Thousands of Minnesotans knew Mary McEvoy who was on the plane as 
staff in name but really as a friend of Paul's and Sheila's. She was 
one of Sheila Wellstone's very closest friends. Sheila flew with Paul 
because he loathed it, and Mary flew with Sheila because she loathed 
it. It was beyond tragedy, beyond words that Mary had taken a leave of 
absence from the University of Minnesota where she was a full 
professor, where she chaired the department, where she had her own very 
distinguished career in her field, so she could help her friend Sheila 
and her friend Paul during their time of need. She had a service where 
over 1,500 Minnesotans, friends, and family came to pay their respects. 
She was associate chair of the DFL Party. She was a leader. She was a 
colleague. She was a mother of three beautiful children, and she had 
her husband Jamie. She will be terribly missed by all of us in the life 
of Minnesota.

  Of course, the linchpin of Paul's staff, his unpaid and most 
important staff person was his wife Sheila who, unlike some campaign 
and political spouses, was beloved by Paul's staff and gratefully 
welcomed to the office for her ability to run interference when 
necessary with her husband and his life and his schemes.
  I remember once it was said it took a lot of money to keep Mahatma 
Gandhi in poverty because of the people around him necessary to help 
him carry out his mission. It took a lot of really remarkable and 
talented people to keep Paul Wellstone on the brink of disorganization. 
He had so much energy and was doing so many things, often 
simultaneously. Sheila was the linchpin and a formidable political 
activist in her own right. She was born and raised in the coal country 
of West Virginia, a hard-scrabble upbringing. She and Paul were married 
when they were 19 years old. For 39 years they were each other's best 
friend, colleagues, mates, spouses.
  Many talk about and preach family values. That was a wonderful 
marriage and a wonderful family. They had three children of whom they 
were enormously proud. Marcia Wellstone, tragically on the plane, was a 
future political star in her own right. She loved campaigning, loved 
being out with the people of Minnesota. She was a wonderful teacher in 
the White Bear School District, beloved by her students, liked by her 
colleagues. She also leaves a gap with her family and friends that can 
never be filled.
  They had two sons who fortunately were not on the plane that day, 
David and Mark, of whom Paul and Sheila were also enormously proud. I 
hope and I trust they will, in this time of terrible loss and grief, be 
consoled a little by the words that were expressed today, by the words 
that have been expressed by people all over the country. They had 
extraordinary parents, very hard parents to lose, but ones who will be 
with them in spirit always and gave them the best upbringing that any 
two fine men could wish for.
  Paul was a family man from the beginning. That was always foremost in 
his priorities. I remember not more than 6 weeks ago I happened to come 
to the Senate Chamber one afternoon, just around the lunch hour. Much 
to my surprise, the Senate was in recess. There was Paul with his 7-
year-old grandson named Joshua, Marcia's child, who was evidently on an 
outing that afternoon with his grandfather.
  Paul was showing him around the empty Chamber and pointing out where 
his desk was, as well as others. I think Paul was convinced that he had 
Josh quite impressed with this great Chamber and all it represents to 
all of us until Josh looked up at him kind of wistfully and said: 
Grandpa, are we going to go someplace soon? You promised that we were 
going to go someplace this afternoon.
  For once, Paul seemed almost at a loss for words. He looked up at the 
ceiling and then looked forlornly at me, looked over to Josh and said: 
This is someplace.
  I close by saying, yes, Paul, this is some place that you reached, 
without any of the advantages some of us have enjoyed, and Sheila 
Wellstone with none at all. They met at age 19. He came to Northfield, 
MN, built a career as a college professor, she as a housewife raising 
their children. To come to some place like this is a phenomenal 
American success story.
  I recounted earlier today about how Paul was elected in 1990. He ran 
an extraordinary campaign, a David versus Goliath, come from nowhere, 
miraculous victory that is a tribute to the kind of indefatigable 
courage and willingness to follow his dream and bring people along with 
him. He stood for what he believed in and won by doing so. That should 
be in every political textbook in this country for decades to come.
  He served in the Senate for 12 years and made those stands again and 
again. Whether they were popular, whether he had the votes or not, he 
knew usually with great insight whether he was going to be successful. 
He knew when he lost he had no alternative but to stand behind what he 
believed in, to stand with his conscience and his convictions. He 
trusted in the people of Minnesota to give him the opportunity to 
serve, which they did twice, and he was going back to seek their 
support for a third term.
  As others have pointed out, he was facing one of the most difficult 
votes of his career, as some would say, at an inopportune time, which 
was the resolution to authorize the use of force in Iraq by the 
President, at his discretion. Paul began his Senate career with that 
kind of vote with the Persian Gulf resolution and some believe because 
of his stands over the years that if he were to oppose a popular 
President, if he were to express a different perspective and, as 
Senator Levin, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, 
pointed out, vote for an alternative resolution, one that committed the 
United States to multilateral action with other countries of the world, 
that he would pay a political price for that in Minnesota.
  Paul never really agonized about his decision in this matter because 
compromising his convictions was not something Paul ever considered 
doing. In fact, in my 2 years in the Senate, the one time I saw Paul 
angry was when a staff person--not his own staff, he did not know who 
made the comment--was reported in the Washington Post as saying the 
Senate Democratic Caucus was trying to find some alternative resolution 
to provide cover for Paul Wellstone who was facing a difficult 
reelection. Paul was furious that anyone would accuse him of looking 
for cover from a tough vote. He said in one of our meetings that is 
what he had to take back to the people of Minnesota, that they knew he 
would never seek cover to avoid a tough decision or a tough vote; he 
would do what he believed was right and he was willing to go back to 
the Minnesota electorate and take their judgment.
  I believe if he had been able to bring that to the Tuesday election 
that judgment would again have been in the affirmative. That is Paul 
Wellstone's legacy to all of us. That is his legacy to the country. 
Whether one would agree with everything Paul believed is not the point. 
There are those who can have sincere convictions on the other side of 
the issue. That is the greatness of our country and our democracy, that 
we can have those disagreements, honest, different points of view, and 
we are a better institution and we are a better country for our 
ability, through our political process, to embrace and incorporate 
those differences.

  He stood for what he believed in, would risk everything, his 
political career, his opportunity to serve, everything he believed and 
everything he wanted, on a matter of principle. He would do so 
willingly, courageously, and emphatically. That is something I will 
take with me throughout the rest of my life, and I would commend it to 
everyone else in this body and across this country.

[[Page S10831]]

  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair, in her capacity as the Senator from 
Michigan, suggests the absence of a quorum.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. REID. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________