[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 15]
[Senate]
[Pages 21241-21246]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




     DEATH OF PAUL WELLSTONE, A SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF MINNESOTA

  Mr. DAYTON. Mr. President, on behalf of the majority leader, the 
Republican leader, all the Members of the Senate, and myself, I ask 
unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. 
Res. 354, submitted earlier today.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered. The clerk will report.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A resolution (S. Res. 354) relative to the death of Paul 
     Wellstone, a Senator from the State of Minnesota:

                              S. Res. 354

       Whereas the Honorable Paul Wellstone taught at Carleton 
     College in Northfield, Minnesota, for more than 20 years in 
     the service of the youth of our Nation;
       Whereas the Honorable Paul Wellstone served Minnesota in 
     the United States Senate with devotion and distinction for 
     more than a decade;
       Whereas the Honorable Paul Wellstone worked tirelessly on 
     behalf of America's Veterans and the less fortunate, 
     particularly children and families living in poverty and 
     those with mental illness;
       Whereas the Honorable Paul Wellstone never wavered from the 
     principles that guided his life and career;
       Whereas his efforts on behalf of the people of Minnesota 
     and all Americans earned him the esteem and high regard of 
     his colleagues; and
       Whereas his tragic and untimely death has deprived his 
     State and Nation of an outstanding lawmaker: Now, therefore, 
     be it
       Resolved, That the Senate expresses profound sorrow and 
     deep regret on the deaths of the Honorable Paul Wellstone, 
     late a Senator from the State of Minnesota, his wife Sheila, 
     their daughter Marcia, aides Mary McEvoy, Tom Lapic, and Will 
     McLaughlin, and pilots Richard Conry and Michael Guess.
       Resolved, That the Secretary communicate these resolutions 
     to the House of Representatives and transmit an enrolled copy 
     thereof to the family of the deceased Senator, and the 
     families of all the deceased.
       Resolved, That when the Senate adjourns today, it adjourn 
     as a further mark of respect to the memory of the deceased 
     Senator.

  Mr. DAYTON. Mr. President, I ask that the Senate observe a moment of 
silence in tribute to Senator Wellstone and his family.
  (Moment of silence.)
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Minnesota.
  Mr. DAYTON. Mr. President, it is with a profoundly heavy heart that I 
rise today to present this resolution honoring my colleague, Paul 
Wellstone. This is not the occasion in this brief session for eulogies. 
There will be other opportunities on the Senate floor for all of us to 
share our memories and our perspectives.
  For myself, I cannot begin to do Paul justice in a few minutes or 
even a few hours. He was such an extraordinary, such a remarkable man, 
and he brought so much life and enthusiasm and passion and commitment 
to the public life he lived, and he touched so many thousands of 
Minnesotans and others across this country who mourn his loss as we do 
here today.
  He died fearlessly, as he lived his life. In the resolution that was 
just read, the words ``never wavered from the principles'' will be 
words that I will always associate with Paul Wellstone. He never ever 
blinked in the face of adversity. Courageous, difficult, perhaps at 
times unpopular positions were articles of faith for Paul because he 
believed in them.
  It was not about polls. It was not about pundits. It was about the 
conviction he had about what was right for people, for his fellow 
citizens.
  He was unpretentious, unassuming, just himself. He was no different 
as a Senator than as a man, than as a political activist all in one, he 
was extraordinary and he will never be replaced. In the hearts and 
minds of Minnesotans, he will never be forgotten.
  Yet, Mr. President, he loved this institution. He respected 
enormously the traditions, the men and women who served here. They came 
to respect him for the courage of his convictions. I could see in the 
course of the 2 years I have shared with him in the Senate that he was 
respected by people who did not agree with him because they knew he was 
speaking from his heart, that he was speaking from his soul, that he 
was speaking what he truly believed.

[[Page 21242]]

  One could ask for no more, no less from any of us than the strength 
of our convictions and our willingness to speak out about them 
regardless of political cost.
  Paul and his wife, Sheila, at his side for 39 years, died last Friday 
together, as they would have wanted it to be, not with their daughter 
Marcia who also was on that flight and three of their devoted aides and 
two pilots. It is an unspeakable tragedy and horror for all of us in 
Minnesota, but it will be for all of us, on behalf of Paul, to take a 
deep breath and carry on in behalf of our convictions and our causes--
as he would want us to do.
  I thank the Senate for this resolution on behalf of Paul. And for his 
two surviving sons, David and Mark, and their families I know it will 
be of solace to them in their hours of terrible grief.
  Mr. President, I yield to my colleague, the Senator from California.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from California.
  Mrs. BOXER. Thank you very much, Mr. President.
  Senator Dayton, your remarks were beautiful and Paul would have been 
so pleased to hear your tone and your spirit. And I can tell you, 
Senator Dayton, how much he loved you, how proud he was to have you 
here by his side.
  Mr. President, I have flown in from California to be here on the 
Senate floor today to make just a few remarks about our dear friend and 
colleague, Senator Paul Wellstone. I want to start by reading two 
paragraphs written by his loyal and hardworking staff. After his plane 
went down, and they learned the worst, they wrote the following:

       Paul Wellstone was one of a kind. He was a man of principle 
     and conviction, in a world that has too little of either. He 
     was dedicated to helping the little guy, in a business 
     dominated by the big guys. We who had the privilege of 
     working with him hope that he will be remembered as he lived 
     every day: as a champion for people.
       His family was the center of his life and it breaks our 
     hearts that his wife of 39 years and his daughter Marcia were 
     with him. Our prayers are with Mark and David and the 
     grandchildren he and Sheila cherished so much.

  That was posted on the Wellstone Web site by Senator Wellstone's 
staff.
  Mr. President, Senator Dayton, for me, the loss of Paul Wellstone 
cuts very deep. Kind, compassionate, self-deprecating, a passionate 
voice for those without a voice, enthusiastic, a bundle of energy--this 
was a unique man of the people.
  When we learned that the tragedy of Paul's death was magnified by the 
death of the two women he cherished so much--his wife Sheila and his 
daughter Marcia--the wounds in our hearts cut deeper still, plus the 
loss of three staffers--Tom Lapic, Will McLaughlin, and Mary McEvoy--
and the two pilots--Captains Richard Conry and Michael Guess.
  Mr. President, no words--no words--can possibly ease the pain of all 
the family members who were touched by this tragedy. No words can ease 
the pain of David and Mark, Paul's two sons, and their families. All we 
can do is let them know that we pray that they have the strength to 
endure this time for the sake of the Wellstone grandchildren: Cari, 
Keith, Joshua, Acacia, Sydney, and Matt. Let the record show that your 
grandchildren brought endless joy to you. And we say to the 
grandchildren, thank you for the joy that you gave to grandma and 
grandpa.
  I want to say to the people of Minnesota, thank you, thank you for 
sending Paul to us, for sharing Paul with us these past 12 years. He 
loved the people of his State: the farmers, the workers, the children, 
the elderly, the sick, the disabled, the families. He fought for you 
all, so long and so hard, without stopping, in committees and 
subcommittees, in the Democratic caucus meetings, when he would get up 
and say: Just give me 30 seconds--just 30 seconds--to make my point 
about the people of Minnesota. He stood up at press conferences. He 
would grab Senators, one by one, and fight for you, the people of 
Minnesota, who were always in his thoughts and on his mind. And I know 
he is now in your thoughts and on your minds.
  In my own State of California--so many thousands of miles away from 
Minnesota--there are memorial services being set up for Paul. You see, 
his compassionate voice reached thousands of miles, and many people in 
my State are sending me condolence notes and flowers because they know 
how much I will miss working with Paul Wellstone, and so will all 
Senators on both sides of the aisle.
  As Mark said, Paul was never afraid to speak out when it might be 
unpopular, nor was he afraid to be on the losing side of a Senate vote. 
He had courage. And when you told him that, when you said: ``Paul, you 
have courage,'' he shrugged it off. He would say something like: ``What 
else could I do? It's just not right!'' He would say that--determined, 
brave.
  You see, Paul Wellstone could not vote against his conscience or for 
something he did not believe was in the best interest of the people he 
represented. He couldn't; he wouldn't--no matter what the consequences.
  He cared about the underdog always. He cared about the victim always. 
He cared about peace always. And Paul, blessed are the peacemakers. 
Paul, blessed are the peacemakers.
  Paul was a humble man. When his longtime staffer, Mike Epstein, 
died--and many of us knew Mike--Paul took to the Senate floor, and this 
is what he said, in part:

       Mike, I know you will not like me saying this, but I'm 
     going to say it anyway because it's true. I believe from the 
     bottom of my heart that everything I've been able to do as a 
     Senator that has been good for Minnesota and the country is 
     because, Mike, you have been right by my side, 1 inch away 
     from me.

  And he said:

       Mike was my tutor. He was my teacher. He was teaching me.

  That was Paul Wellstone. He never bragged about himself. He loved his 
family so much. He loved his staff. He took time for all the Senate 
employees: the young people who work with us, the officers who protect 
us, the food service people, the elevator operators--all the Senate 
family, no matter what their status.
  Mr. President, he wanted to give everyone--everyone he touched--his 
sense of optimism, his energy, his strength.
  When Paul learned he had multiple sclerosis, I worried and I said to 
him: Are you OK? He said: I probably had it for a long time. I'm just 
not going to think about it. And off he went in his usual rush. There 
was so much to do. Off he went to his desk in the Senate, his desk now 
incredibly shrouded in black.
  Paul loved that aisle desk. It gave him a bird's eye view of the 
Senate that he loved. And when he spoke from his desk, he could come 
out from behind it. He could leave his notes behind--arms gesturing, 
voice determined--and talk from his heart. He would say something like: 
I don't represent big business or big anything. He would say: I 
represent the people of Minnesota. And that he did every minute of his 
all-too-short life.
  As our session wound down, Paul wanted to finish our business and go 
home. He told us all: I want to be with my people. I need to touch 
them. I need to look them in the eye. I can't wait to get home.
  Paul was a powerful man. His power did not come from his physical 
stature. He was strong but he was slight of build. His power did not 
come from generations of family wealth. He was not a man of moneyed 
wealth. His parents were immigrants: Leon and Minnie Wellstone. His 
power did not come from political connections. His connections were 
with regular people.
  Let me tell you from where his power came. It came from a fierce 
dedication to justice and truth and honesty and righteousness. He gave 
comfort and he gave hope to those he touched. And he gave them some of 
his power--the power to see the possibilities of their own lives. Paul 
died on his way to give comfort and hope to those facing death. He was 
flying to a funeral service.
  Today we say to Paul: We will give comfort and hope to those you have 
left behind by doing all that we can to continue your legacy and your 
dream.

[[Page 21243]]

Together, we can build an America of fairness, of justice, of 
prosperity, a world of tolerance and a world of peace. And, Paul, may 
you and yours rest in peace forever.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Vermont.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Minnesota and the 
Senator from California for their words. I know and respect both the 
Senator from Minnesota, Senator Dayton, and the Senator from 
California, Senator Boxer. I know them well enough to know this was a 
very painful moment for both of them--just as it is for the 
distinguished Presiding Officer and as it is for the Senator from 
Vermont.
  Mr. President, you and I have been here a long time in the Senate. 
With the Senator from Minnesota, who is now--not at his choice--the 
senior Senator from Minnesota, and the Senator from California, I think 
we can all say that there is no sadder sight than coming on the floor 
and seeing a black drape on a Senator's desk. The distinguished 
Presiding Officer and I have unfortunately seen that many times in our 
careers, for Senators on both sides of the aisle. In every instance 
when we have entered the chamber and seen the black drape we know that 
there has been a death in the family.
  We are privileged in this body, 100 men and women--now 99 men and 
women--to represent the greatest nation on Earth, a nation of a quarter 
of a billion people. But because there are only 100 of us, no matter 
our political differences, when one is lost we all feel it. When I 
heard the news in Vermont, I was at a restaurant in Burlington with my 
son, Kevin. It was a small restaurant. There was a TV going but with no 
sound. My back was to it. I saw the look of shock on Kevin's face. He 
spun me around and I saw the news. We both left that restaurant in 
tears. The news spread quickly and as I walked down the street people--
many of them I never met before--just came up and hugged me, because 
they, too, lost somebody.
  Paul Wellstone had come to Vermont and was greeted with great warmth. 
I vividly remember the evening he came to speak. Everybody came up to 
him. They didn't want him to leave. Paul Wellstone, like one of his 
predecessors, my dear friend, Hubert Humphrey, was a happy warrior. If 
people wanted to talk with him he did not mind and would stay, the same 
way Hubert would have.
  There is an affinity, I believe, between our State of Vermont and 
Minnesota. That is why there was a bond Vermonters felt with Paul 
Wellstone. Paul could sense it. And, we worked on many important issues 
as a team. During the recent farm bill debate he met with Vermont 
farmers and together we drafted a dairy provision that was beneficial 
to both of our States. I remember when he and Jim Jeffords and Bernie 
Sanders and I joined together to have a milk toast. We were joking 
around. Paul was not a tall man. I playfully stood blocking him from 
the cameras. And he said: ``Hey, remember, I'm a wrestler,'' at which 
point I quickly moved aside. Of course Paul was far more than a 
wrestler--but it is easy to make the correlation to the way he wrestled 
with issues here on the floor. He wrestled them down. I thought to 
myself: What a man to have on your side. What a man to be a friend.
  Paul Wellstone served with powerful people but he was not intimidated 
by that. And, he never took on the airs of one who was powerful. He 
would introduce himself to people: Hi, I'm Paul Wellstone. And someone 
else would have to say: That's a U.S. Senator.
  I never went on an elevator with Paul without him calling the 
elevator operator by name. He would talk with the pages and give them 
tutorials. He knew everybody in the Senate and they knew and loved him.
  It is impossible to talk about our colleague Paul Wellstone without 
mentioning Sheila Wellstone. They were inseparable. Whenever the Senate 
would have a late night session Sheila would be in the galleries, 
waiting for Paul to leave.
  Of all my memories of Paul Wellstone, the one I may remember the most 
is the last time I saw the two of them. It was a late night session. 
You know these gorgeous halls we have, with the chandeliers and 
everything else, and here is this couple walking hand in hand down one 
of the halls about midnight--Paul and Sheila Wellstone. I came around 
the corner and I said: ``Hey, you teenagers,'' and they laughed and 
hugged each other. I saw them go out, down the steps into the night, 
hand in hand.
  Let us hope that they have gone hand and hand into the light and that 
they are now together.
  Marcella and I also extend our thoughts and prayers to Marcia, Paul 
and Sheila's daughter, and her family. And, as the Senate noted in the 
resolution that was just passed a few moments ago, we all grieve for 
the Wellstone staff who were on board the plane: Tom Lapic, Mary McEvoy 
and Will McLaughlin. Our thoughts and prayer are with their families in 
these trying times. Our condolences also go out to the families of the 
pilots on the plane, Richard Conry and Michael Guess.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Boxer). The Senator from Connecticut.
  Mr. DODD. Madam President, first let me express my thanks to our 
colleague from Minnesota, Senator Dayton, and express our sympathies to 
him and through him to the people of Minnesota and to the Wellstone 
family, the extended family, for all that they are suffering in this 
particular time, and to express my gratitude as well to my colleague 
from California, Senator Boxer, and my colleague from Vermont, Senator 
Leahy, for their very moving and emotional remarks. I think they 
captured to a large extent the sentiments of all of us.
  This is a difficult time. I suppose the American people see we are in 
session and wonder why only a few of us are here. Obviously, with a 
week to go before the congressional elections, not many are here in 
Washington. But suffice it to say, were 96 or 97 other Senators here 
today, you would here much the same sentiments that have been expressed 
already by the now-senior Senator from Minnesota, the Senator from 
California, and the Senator from Vermont.
  So I join my colleagues, and all Americans, in mourning the very 
tragic and sudden loss of our dear friend and colleague, Senator Paul 
Wellstone, who will be forever remembered as a friend and patriot and 
true public servant, who fought each and every day of his public life--
in fact, of his life--to the improve the lives of average Americans. We 
got to know him here over the last 10 or 11 years as a Member of the 
U.S. Senate, but the people of Minnesota and the people of Carleton 
College, students who had him as a professor, people who knew him 
beforehand, they knew that Paul Wellstone didn't just become a fighter 
when he arrived in the Senate of the United States. He dedicated his 
life to it. It is what his parents taught him. It is what he believed 
in passionately as an American. We became witnesses to that sense of 
passion and outrage about wrongs in this country and around the world 
as we served with our colleague, Paul Wellstone, for the last decade.
  So, like my colleagues, I was stunned and deeply saddened by the 
enormous scope and tragedy of this loss. Obviously, the entire 
Wellstone family has suffered an unfathomable loss, as have the 
families of other victims of this horrendous accident. His wife 
Sheila--I join my colleagues in expressing our deep sense of loss. 
Sometimes, although we get to know Members, we don't get to know the 
spouses of our colleagues very well, but Sheila Wellstone really became 
a member of the Senate family aside from being a spouse. She was an 
unpaid volunteer in her husband's office.
  If there are women today who are suffering less because of domestic 
violence--and they are many who are not, but many who are--you can 
thank some colleagues here. But I suspect one of the reasons they 
became so motivated about the issue was because there was a person by 
the name of Sheila Wellstone who arrived here a decade ago and wanted 
to make this a

[[Page 21244]]

matter of the business of the U.S. Senate.
  So they became partners, not just over the almost 40 years of love 
and affection for each other, but partners in their sense of idealism, 
sense of values, and sense of purpose.
  Marcia I did not know very well but certainly heard Paul and Sheila 
talk about her with great admiration and affection. In the loss 
suffered by her family, with young children, it is just difficult to 
even come up with the words to express the sense of grief that I feel 
for her and her family. And obviously the staff: Will McLaughlin, Tom 
Lapic, and Mary McEvoy, along with the pilots who have been mentioned 
already: Richard Conry and Michael Guess, we didn't know, but I suspect 
on that flight up there they had gotten to know the Wellstone family 
and the staff. And so we want to express our deep sense of loss to 
their families.
  I ask unanimous consent to have printed at the end of my remarks a 
wonderful editorial by David Rosenbaum in the New York Times on 
Saturday which I thought captured perfectly the image of Paul 
Wellstone, who he was and what he tried to do, better than any words I 
could possibly express here today.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  (See exhibit 1.)
  Mr. DODD. Madam President, William Shakespeare once wrote, ``No 
legacy is so rich as honesty.'' I have never met, let alone worked 
with, a more honest or noble man than Paul Wellstone.
  His rich, rich legacy will be that of an honest, passionate and 
tireless fighter on behalf of justice and fairness for all Americans, 
especially those less fortunate than himself.
  Paul suffered a lot. He had this bad back. He would hobble around. He 
had this gait that if you didn't know he was hurting was almost an 
affectionate gait. He sort of limped around at various times; he would 
stand a lot at times in meetings because sitting would be so painful 
for him as a result of injuries he suffered. He had MS which he sort of 
shrugged off, as my colleague from California said. He grew up in a 
situation where his family were immigrants who came from Russia. They 
grew up actually in Arlington, VA, a short distance from here. A former 
staff member of mine was a neighbor of theirs. He knew Paul as a child 
growing up. They had their own burdens to bear aside from being 
immigrants, problems of those newly arriving, with the language 
barriers. Trying to get acclimated to a new society such as ours is not 
easy. So Paul understood the issues of those who suffered more than in 
just an intellectual effort. This was something he deeply felt and had 
grown up with and appreciated immensely.
  When he came to this body and we got to know him as someone who would 
fight tirelessly on behalf of those who did not have lawyers, 
lobbyists, and others to express their concerns, to bring their issues 
to the debate of the Senate, we found in this individual just a 
remarkable voice and a remarkable fight. Like many of my colleagues, I 
might be home or completed the evening and turned on the television and 
the Senate would still be in session, and there would be Paul 
Wellstone, standing at that desk in the rear of this Chamber, speaking 
to an empty place except for the millions of Americans tuned in to C-
SPAN who would hear someone talking about subjects that were affecting 
their lives.
  Single moms, working families, children without health care, the 
homeless, international victims of torture--these were among Senator 
Paul Wellstone's core constituencies, and they could not have had a 
better spokesperson.
  A lot of times we spend days here talking about issues that might 
seem terribly arcane to the average citizen in this country, matters 
that don't seem terribly relevant to their daily lives, and yet Paul 
Wellstone never let a day go by that he didn't give voice to the 
concerns of average Americans or those who are, as Hubert Humphrey 
would talk about, in the shadows of life or the dawn of life or the 
dusk of life--Paul Wellstone giving voice, that great Minnesota voice 
to those who needed to have their concerns raised in chambers such as 
this. And so for all of those people who are wondering today whether or 
not their concerns, their hopes, their fears will find expression, it 
is hard to find any silver lining with the passage of someone you care 
about so much, but I suspect as we reconvene here on November 12 and 
again with a new Congress coming in in January we will hear the words 
of Paul Wellstone repeated quite frequently. We will hear the passion 
that he brought to the issues raised maybe more frequently than they 
otherwise might be. That's because we will remember an individual we 
had the privilege and honor of serving with who reminded this 
institution of what its role ought to be, not just to those who are 
well heeled, those who can afford to acquire the access, but those who 
need to have their issues raised--that their concerns and their 
worries, their hopes, their dreams for this country and their own 
families will be once again a part of the mainstream of debate in the 
Senate.
  Paul Wellstone fought some awfully tough battles. He fought a tough 
battle to get here, a man who was told he could not possibly get 
elected to the Senate, who was being outspent by overwhelming odds.
  I rode with him in that bus--I am sure my colleague from Minnesota, 
maybe my colleagues from California and Vermont remember--that rattly 
old green bus, in the freezing cold, bitter cold, cold months of 
Minnesota. I remember going with him to some big fair or festival that 
he was holding on behalf of poor farmers and family farmers in 
Minnesota. Just a few weeks ago, Madam President, I campaigned with him 
in Minnesota, with some of the medical device companies around 
Minneapolis and St. Paul. This was supposed to be about a 20-minute 
meeting we were going to have at one of these firms to talk about the 
medical devices that Paul played a major role in working to see to it 
that they were going to become a reality for people who would use them. 
We were supposed to leave in 15 or 20 minutes but the room was packed; 
the people wanted to talk about other things. And Paul Wellstone stayed 
for about 1\1/2\ hours just engaging with the people in this room. They 
went far beyond the medical device issues. The people in that room 
wanted to talk about health care; they wanted to talk about education; 
they wanted to talk about the environment; they wanted to talk about 
prescription drugs and the elderly; they wanted to talk about issues 
affecting Native Americans and minority groups; they wanted to talk 
about foreign policy. And he engaged, engaged and engaged for an hour 
and a half. He would have stayed longer. Staff had to almost drag him 
out of the room. But it was so reflective, standing in the back of the 
room watching Paul Wellstone with great passion and clarity expressing 
where he stood.
  He didn't sit there and try to figure out where the question was 
coming from based on the tilt of their rhetoric. He answered them how 
he felt as their Senator, their representative, so they would know 
where he stood.
  Madam President, I apologize for sort of meandering here, but it is 
how I feel. I have a great sense of loss and also a sense of joy. Paul 
Wellstone had a great sense of humor. He cared deeply about issues but 
he also had the wonderful ability to laugh at himself, to appreciate 
the humor that only this institution can provide in some of the more 
bizarre moments, a wonderful relationship with virtually everyone here. 
It didn't happen automatically or initially. Paul came here determined 
to change the world; if not the world, change the United States; if not 
that, maybe his Minnesota. Along the way and in the process he probably 
rubbed some people the wrong way, but those very people became the 
people who cared most about him in many ways in the final analysis 
because they realized that everything he said and everything he did was 
not about himself but about the people he wanted to represent. And so I 
know there are Members who are not here today because of other 
obligations, but who, when the opportunity

[[Page 21245]]

comes, will express their own thoughts and feelings, but don't be 
surprised--Madam President, I know you will not be, nor my colleagues 
from Minnesota or Vermont--that some of the heartfelt remarks about 
Paul will come from people who disagreed with him vehemently on 
substantive matters, but appreciated immensely his sense of conviction, 
something we can do a lot more of in politics in America today.
  Frederick Douglass once said, ``The life of a nation is secure only 
while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous.'' For 58 years, 
Paul Wellstone lived a life that was honest, truthful, and virtuous. 
For 12 years, he personally lent those characteristics to the heart of 
the United States government.
  America, Minnesota, and this institution have suffered a terrible 
loss at the death of Paul Wellstone but there is a silver lining in all 
of this; that as a result of his service this country is a better 
place, there are people who are living better lives; this world with 
all of its difficulties has been a better world because Paul Wellstone 
was a part of it.
  I am confident as I stand before you today, Madam President, that in 
the weeks, months, and years ahead, his memory and legacy will live on 
in the debates, the discussions, and actions we take in this body.
  For that, Paul Wellstone, you ought to know that your service 
continues and your words and your actions will have a legacy borne out 
by those who come after you in the service of your State and the 
thousands of young people you motivated.
  Madam President, if you could only see, as many have, the hundreds of 
young people throughout Minnesota who Paul Wellstone energized and 
brought to the public life of this country, people who otherwise would 
not have paid any attention. Paul Wellstone said: You ought to be 
involved; there is a reason to be involved.
  His ability to attract people to come to a cause and to fight for the 
good cause will live on. I suspect one day this Chamber will have 
people who will serve in it who cut their teeth in politics working on 
a Wellstone campaign.
  Paul, the campaign goes on. Your battles will go on, and we are going 
to miss you. I yield the floor.

                               Exhibit 1

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

A Death in the Senate: Paul Wellstone, 58, Icon of Liberalism in Senate

                        (By David E. Rosenbaum)

       Washington, Oct. 25.--Paul Wellstone often seemed out of 
     step. He called himself a liberal when many used that word as 
     a slur. He voted against the Persian Gulf war in his first 
     year in the Senate, and this month opposed using force 
     against Iraq.
       Senator Wellstone, 58, who died in a plane crash today 
     while campaigning for re-election, fought for bills favored 
     by unions and advocates of family farmers and the poor, and 
     against those favored by banks, agribusiness and large 
     corporations. This year he was the principal opponent of 
     legislation supported by large majorities of Democrats and 
     Republicans that would make it more difficult for people to 
     declare bankruptcy. He argued that the measure would enrich 
     creditors at the expense of people ``in brutal economic 
     circumstances.'' He advocated causes like national health 
     insurance that even many of his fellow liberals abandoned as 
     futile.
       Mr. Wellstone was a rumpled, unfailingly modest man who, 
     unlike many of his colleagues, lived on his Senate salary. He 
     was married to the former Sheila Ison for 39 years, having 
     married at 19 when he was in college. His wife and their 33-
     year-old daughter, Marcia, also died today in the crash.
       When Mr. Wellstone arrived in the Senate in 1991, he was a 
     firebrand who thought little of breaking the Senate tradition 
     of comity and personally attacking his colleagues. He told an 
     interviewer soon after he was elected that Senator Jesse 
     Helms, the conservative North Carolina Republican, 
     ``represents everything to me that is ugly and wrong and 
     awful about politics.''
       But as the years passed, Mr. Wellstone moderated his 
     personality if not his politics and became well liked by 
     Republicans as well as Democrats. Bob Dole, the former Senate 
     Republican leader who often tangled with Mr. Wellstone on 
     legislation, choked up today when he told a television 
     interviewer that Mr. Wellstone was ``a decent, genuine guy 
     who had a different philosophy from almost everyone else in 
     the Senate.''
       Mr. Wellstone was also an accomplished campaigner. Though 
     he had never held elected office, he pulled off a major upset 
     in 1990 when, running on a shoestring budget, he defeated the 
     incumbent Republican senator, Rudy Boschwitz. He beat Mr. 
     Boschwitz in a rematch in 1996. This year, he reneged on a 
     promise to limit himself to two terms, ran for re-election 
     and seemed in the most recent public polls to have pulled 
     slightly ahead of his Republican challenger, former Mayor 
     Norm Coleman of St. Paul.
       His opponents always portrayed him as a left-wing 
     extremist. Mr. Boschwitz's television commercials in 1996 
     called Mr. Wellstone ``embarrassingly liberal and out of 
     touch.'' This year, Mr. Coleman said the senator was ``so far 
     out of the mainstream, so extreme, that he can't deliver for 
     Minnesotans.''
       But on the campaign trail, Mr. Wellstone appeared to be so 
     happy, so comfortable, so unthreatening that he was able to 
     ward off the attacks.
       For years, he had walked with a pronounced limp that he 
     attributed to an old wrestling injury. In February, he 
     announced at a news conference that he had learned he had 
     multiple sclerosis, but he said the illness would not affect 
     his campaigning or his ability to sit in the Senate. ``I have 
     a strong mind--although there are some that might disagree 
     about that--I have a strong body, I have a strong heart, I 
     have a strong soul,'' he told reporters.
       Paul David Wellstone was born in Washington on July 21, 
     1944, and grew up in Arlington, Va. His father, Leon, left 
     Russia as a child to escape the persecution of Jews, and 
     worked as a writer for the United States Information Agency. 
     His mother, Minnie, the daughter of immigrants from Russia, 
     worked in a junior high school cafeteria.
       Growing up, he was more interested in wrestling than 
     politics, and he had some difficulty in school because of 
     what he later found out was a learning disability. He scored 
     lower than 800, out of a total of 1,600, on his College 
     Boards, and this led him as a senator to oppose measures that 
     emphasized standardized test scores. In an interview, he once 
     said that even as an adult he had difficulty interpreting 
     charts and graphs quickly but that he had learned to overcome 
     his disability by studying harder and taking more time to 
     absorb information.
       Partly because of his wrestling ability--he was a 
     conference champion at 126 pounds--he was admitted to the 
     University of North Carolina and, galvanized by the civil 
     rights movement, he turned from wrestling to politics. He 
     graduated in 1965 and stayed in Chapel Hill for a doctorate 
     in political science. He wrote his thesis on the roots of 
     black militancy.
       Married with children, he once said he did not have time to 
     participate in the student uprisings in the 1960's. He is 
     survived by two grown sons, David and Mark, of St. Paul, and 
     six grandchildren.
       But while he was not a student rebel, Mr. Wellstone did not 
     fit in from the day in 1969 when he began teaching political 
     science at Carleton College, a small liberal arts campus in 
     rural Northfield, Minn.
       He was more interested in leading his students in protests 
     than he was in publishing in academic journals, and he was 
     often at odds with his colleagues and Carleton 
     administrators. He fought the college's investments in 
     companies doing business in South Africa, battled local banks 
     that foreclosed on farms, picketed with strikers at a meat-
     packing plant and taught classes off campus rather than cross 
     a picket line when Carleton's custodians were on strike.
       In 1974, the college told him his contract would not be 
     renewed. But with strong support from students, the student 
     newspaper and local activists, he appealed the dismissal, and 
     it was reversed.
       In 1982, Mr. Wellstone dipped his toe into the political 
     waters for the first time and ran for state auditor. He lost. 
     But he had made contacts in the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-
     Labor Party, and he stayed active in politics. In 1988, he 
     was the state co-chairman of the Rev. Jesse Jackson's 
     campaign in the president primary, and in the general 
     election, he was co-chairman of the campaign of Michael S. 
     Dukakis, the Democratic presidential nominee.
       Few thought he had a chance when he announced that he would 
     run for the Senate against Mr. Boschwitz, Russell D. 
     Feingold, now a like-minded liberal Democratic senator from 
     Wisconsin, today had this recollection of dropping by to meet 
     Mr. Wellstone in 1989:
       ``He opened the door, and there he was with his socks off, 
     15 books open that he was reading, and he was on the phone 
     arguing with somebody about Cuba. He gave me coffee, and we 
     laughed uproariously at the idea that either of us would ever 
     be elected. But he pulled it off in 1990 and gave me the 
     heart to do it in Wisconsin.''
       Mr. Feingold was elected in 1992, also with a tiny 
     treasury.
       Mr. Boschwitz spent $7 million on his campaign, seven times 
     Mr. Wellstone's budget. To counteract the Boschwitz attacks, 
     Mr. Wellstone ran witty, even endearing television 
     commercials produced without charge by a group led by a 
     former student. In one ad, the video and audio were speeded 
     up, and Mr. Wellstone said he had to talk fast because ``I 
     don't have $6 million to spend.''
       Mr. Wellstone toured the state in a battered green school 
     bus, and in the end, he won 50.4 percent of the vote and was 
     the only

[[Page 21246]]

     challenger in 1990 to defeat an incumbent senator.
       He arrived in Washington as something of a rube. On one of 
     his first days in town before he was sworn in, he called a 
     reporter for the name of a restaurant where he could get a 
     cheap dinner. When the reporter replied that he knew a place 
     where a good meal was only $15, Mr. Wellstone said $15 was 
     many times what he was prepared to spend.
       He also made what he later conceded were ``rookie 
     mistakes.'' At one point, for instance, he used the Vietnam 
     Veterans Memorial as a backdrop for a news conference to 
     oppose the war against Iraq. Veterans' groups denounced him, 
     and he later apologized.
       But he soon warmed to the ways of the Senate and became 
     especially adept at the unusual custom of giving long 
     speeches to an empty chamber. Probably no one in the Senate 
     over the last dozen years gave more speeches at night after 
     nearly all the other senators had gone home.
       His strength was not in getting legislation enacted. One 
     successful measure he sponsored in 1996 with Senator Pete V. 
     Domenici, Republican of New Mexico, requires insurance 
     companies in some circumstances to give coverage to people 
     with mental illness, but he failed this year in an effort to 
     strengthen the law.
       In a book he published last year, ``The Conscience of a 
     Liberal'' (Random House), Mr. Wellstone wrote, ``I feel as if 
     80 percent of my work as a senator has been playing defense, 
     cutting the extremist enthusiasms of the conservative agenda 
     (much of which originates in the House) rather than moving 
     forward on a progressive agenda.''
       In a speech in the Senate this month explaining his 
     opposition to the resolution authorizing the use of force in 
     Iraq, Mr. Wellstone stressed that Saddam Hussein was ``a 
     brutal, ruthless dictator who has repressed his own people.''
       But Mr. Wellstone went on to say: ``Despite a desire to 
     support our president, I believe many Americans still have 
     profound questions about the wisdom of relying too heavily on 
     a preemptive go-it-alone military approach. 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.''
       Later, Mr. Wellstone told a reporter that he did not 
     believe his stance would hurt him politically. ``What would 
     really hurt,'' he said, ``is if I was giving speeches and I 
     didn't even believe what I was saying. Probably what would 
     hurt is if people thought I was doing something just for 
     political reasons.''
       Mr. Wellstone briefly considered running for president in 
     2000, but he called off the campaign because, he said, the 
     doctors who had been treating him for a ruptured disk told 
     him that his back could not stand the travel that would be 
     required.
       Often, Mr. Wellstone was the only senator voting against a 
     measure, or one of only a few. He was, for instance, one of 
     three senators in 1999 to support compromise missile defense 
     legislation. He was the only one that year to vote against an 
     education bill involving standardized tests, and the only 
     Democrat who opposed his party's version of lowering the 
     estate tax.
       Mr. Wellstone was one of the few senators who made the 
     effort to meet and remember the names of elevator operators, 
     waiters, police officers and other workers in the Capitol.
       James W. Ziglar, a Republican who was sergeant at arms of 
     the Senate from 1998 to 2001 and who is now commissioner of 
     the Immigration and Naturalization Service, remembered today 
     ``the evening when he came back to the Capitol well past 
     midnight to visit with the cleaning staff and tell them how 
     much he appreciated their efforts.''
       ``Most of the staff had never seen a senator and certainly 
     had never had one make such a meaningful effort to express 
     his or her appreciation,'' Mr. Ziglar said. ``That was the 
     measure of the man.''

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, the resolution and preamble 
are agreed to.
  The resolution (S. Res. 354) was agreed to.
  The preamble was agreed to.

                          ____________________