In the spring of 1994 I decided not to seek reelection to the Senate. I had made the decision 12 years earlier Christmas Day of 1982 just after I had been first elected to a full term that I would do the best I could for a limited time.

If the president is failing to disclose material facts with regard to legislation being presented to the Congress on a question as important as war and peace I think it does impair the level of trust that the House and the Senate have for this administration.

Cheerleading gave me a love of sports which I brought to the Senate. I can talk to the good ol' boys about college sports because I follow it like they do.

There's one advantage in having been around as long as I have. Everybody in the Senate knows me and - I'm going to say something presumptuous to repeat myself - I think most respect me.

The thing is if you control the Senate meetings you control the gavel. And the gavel is a very important instrument... an instrument of power. An instrument that establishes the agenda.

You should see what our Founding Fathers used to say to each other and in the early part of our nation. But what they were able to do especially in Philadelphia in 1787 four months they argued about what a House should be what a Senate should be the power of the president the Congress the Supreme Court. And they had to deal with slavery.

The next thing I am doing is moving back home to Minnesota and getting involved in politics. I'm looking at a run for Senate in 2008 but in the meantime I am focused on knitting together the progressive network in the upper Midwest.

What's going on in the Senate is kind of a politics of escalation. We're getting sort of like the Mideast: pay back everybody when you're in charge.

The reason why I'm here today is to explain why I am running and what I will do if you give me the honor and the privilege of representing you in the United States Senate. Now I'm running for the United State Senate for a simple reason and that is...I want to win a Nobel Peace prize.

That is why I fought against abortion and that is why if I were still in the Senate I would be doing everything I could to defend the sanctity of marriage.

I opposed the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996. It should be repealed and I will vote for its repeal on the Senate floor. I will also oppose any proposal to amend the U.S. Constitution to ban gays and lesbians from marrying.

When the Senate ceases to engage nominees in meaningful discussion of legal issues the confirmation process takes on an air of vacuity and farce and the Senate becomes incapable of either properly evaluating nominees or appropriately educating the public.

Now for this book I had to learn the world of the Senate which is really for all that's written about the Senate an unknowing world and its mores and the way things work with subcommittees and all. I loved learning about that.

I think that if Republicans are given the reins of leadership in the House or Senate or both we will have to govern in a way - at least put forward solutions whether or not the president goes along with them or not that deal with these long-term challenges.

I think national issues play into gubernatorial races less than obviously in Senate and Congressional races. Much less. They tend to be more decided by personality leadership qualities and by state or local issues. They still have some effect no question about it but not as much as Senate and Congressional races.

When President Obama was in the Senate when he was a U.S. senator he voted against raising the debt ceiling. And he said it was a lack of leadership that had brought us to this point.

First I have the privilege of being Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. It is not an oxymoron I assure you.

House and Senate Republicans are now united in adopting earmark bans. We hope President Obama will follow through on his support for an earmark ban by pressing Democratic leaders to join House and Senate Republicans in taking this critical step to restore public trust.

I hope that as the Senate and American people learn more about me they will see that I am an ordinary person who has been blessed with extraordinary opportunities and experiences.

Look all this is about is utilizing the rules of the Senate using a majority of the senators to make sure that we get health reform done. We cannot wait another day.

But ours was intended to be a citizen government. It is what of by and for the people means. And when our most important issue in California is the creation of jobs I think it's quite helpful to have someone in the U.S. Senate or in the governor's seat who actually knows where jobs come from.

Making recess appointments when the Senate isn't in recess is neither rational nor moderate. It's a raw misuse of executive power by a president whose love of government is his most vulnerable spot with the electorate.

What I worry about would be that you essentially have two chambers the House and the Senate but you have simply majoritarian absolute power on either side. And that's just not what the founders intended.

Ancient Rome declined because it had a Senate now what's going to happen to us with both a House and a Senate?