Byron Dorgan: “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…”

“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 rac{1}{2} ext{ 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.”