Remembering Senator Wellstone, 2000, by Andy Dawkins

From MemoryArchive

Who: Andy Dawkins
What: Remembering Senator Wellstone
When: 2000
Where: Minneapolis

My favorite memory of Paul is when he stood up before the Senate and called a roll call on part of the S&L bailout. They did [the bailout] just before he got there. So they need another like $300 million, and Paul's in his second week. Every single one of them came up and pounded on his desk, you know, and the president of the Senate is saying, "You little twerp." They're calling senators and getting them out of bed. It takes two hours to get the roll-call vote. That senator from New York at the time, what was his name? Moynihan. He said to the Senate president, "There has been a sea change."

We both were involved in the Jesse Jackson campaign, and there were a bunch of us one night camping out on a retreat for the campaign--Scott Adams, Chris Black, and others for Jackson. And we're all saying, "You know, Paul, you should run. You should run for Senate." And he's sitting there shrugging, saying, "Aw, come on, you guys." You know, not buying it.

We stayed together in a hotel in Atlanta one night on that Jackson campaign, and it would just drive me nuts: Paul was always up very early in the morning, the whole weekend. He'd be going out jogging right about the time I was just coming in from partying. (Anderson)