Vernon Ehlers: “I do not claim to know the late Senator Wellstone very well. We had very little interaction, but I had a deep interest…”

“I do not claim to know the late Senator Wellstone very well. We had very little interaction, but I had a deep interest in him because my home State was Minnesota. That was the State of my birth, and I have watched Minnesota politics with great interest over the years and I also watched Mr. Wellstone with great interest. And although his politics and his political views were quite different from those of mine, I admire several things about him. In the go-along-to-get-along atmosphere we often encounter in politics, he stood out as someone who stood for his beliefs. He fought passionately for his beliefs, and he sought to extend those beliefs into action, and I admire that in any individual, whether in the House or the Senate or the political arena in general, to have a stance that they take, to have a passion for what they believe is right, and to fight passionately for what they believe is right I think is an admiral trait in any individual, and Mr. Wellstone certainly exhibited that during his brief career in the political arena.”