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CNN Live Saturday
Interview With David Durenberger
Aired October 26, 2002 - 17:23 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: What kind of man was Paul Wellstone? And who may end up trying to fill his shoes? Former Minnesota Senator David Durenberger joins us now from St. Paul. We do appreciate you being with us, sir. Can you share a little bit with us about Senator Wellstone? What are some of your recollections?
DAVID DURENBERGER, FORMER MINNESOTA SENATOR: Well, I think my best recollection of Paul is how real he was all of the time. He never grew into being a senator. He was always Paul Wellstone. He learned after the first year how to master the Senate and how to accomplish the kinds of things he felt were important to accomplish, but never in that period of time was he anybody other than Paul Wellstone. And usually Paul and Sheila Wellstone.
COLLINS: What about -- I know that earlier you had mentioned his integrity. I had seen a quote from you saying he had just incredible integrity.
DURENBERGER: Well, here's where the integrity comes in. Everything that he did was -- there was a cause involved, not just a principle or something like that, but there was a cause. We heard hundreds of times about his father and mother's Parkinson's, for example, as he fought to get more research funding. We heard about individual people in western -- farmers in western Minnesota, ranchers in northwestern Minnesota.
I mean, he humanized absolutely everything that he did, and he really believed that he was representing individual people, not some collective good. And to me, that's the genuineness of representative government, that Paul, unlike anybody else I've ever been around in politics, really represented. That's the loss, not his liberalism or something like that. That's the real loss.
COLLINS: And let me ask you, do you think the Democrats have a good replacement in mind? We, of course, have heard word about Walter Mondale. What is your reaction to that?
DURENBERGER: Well, Walter Mondale is not Paul Wellstone, and Walter Mondale is a great -- has been a great representative of Minnesota, and I'm sure that the Democratic Party will find someone, probably not of that stature, but someone else. I think the inclination of everybody here would be to find someone in the party who has the kind of future that a Paul Wellstone represented back in 1990 when he first ran, and even the future that he represented when he made the decision not to stick with a two-year term limitation but to run again. COLLINS: All right. Former Minnesota Senator David Durenberger, we do appreciate your time, sir.
DURENBERGER: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired October 26, 2002 - 17:23 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: What kind of man was Paul Wellstone? And who may end up trying to fill his shoes? Former Minnesota Senator David Durenberger joins us now from St. Paul. We do appreciate you being with us, sir. Can you share a little bit with us about Senator Wellstone? What are some of your recollections?
DAVID DURENBERGER, FORMER MINNESOTA SENATOR: Well, I think my best recollection of Paul is how real he was all of the time. He never grew into being a senator. He was always Paul Wellstone. He learned after the first year how to master the Senate and how to accomplish the kinds of things he felt were important to accomplish, but never in that period of time was he anybody other than Paul Wellstone. And usually Paul and Sheila Wellstone.
COLLINS: What about -- I know that earlier you had mentioned his integrity. I had seen a quote from you saying he had just incredible integrity.
DURENBERGER: Well, here's where the integrity comes in. Everything that he did was -- there was a cause involved, not just a principle or something like that, but there was a cause. We heard hundreds of times about his father and mother's Parkinson's, for example, as he fought to get more research funding. We heard about individual people in western -- farmers in western Minnesota, ranchers in northwestern Minnesota.
I mean, he humanized absolutely everything that he did, and he really believed that he was representing individual people, not some collective good. And to me, that's the genuineness of representative government, that Paul, unlike anybody else I've ever been around in politics, really represented. That's the loss, not his liberalism or something like that. That's the real loss.
COLLINS: And let me ask you, do you think the Democrats have a good replacement in mind? We, of course, have heard word about Walter Mondale. What is your reaction to that?
DURENBERGER: Well, Walter Mondale is not Paul Wellstone, and Walter Mondale is a great -- has been a great representative of Minnesota, and I'm sure that the Democratic Party will find someone, probably not of that stature, but someone else. I think the inclination of everybody here would be to find someone in the party who has the kind of future that a Paul Wellstone represented back in 1990 when he first ran, and even the future that he represented when he made the decision not to stick with a two-year term limitation but to run again. COLLINS: All right. Former Minnesota Senator David Durenberger, we do appreciate your time, sir.
DURENBERGER: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
