la follette in the "new york times" and i got 110 hits. i thought that cannot be right. of course she wasn't belle la follette. she was mrs. robert la follette. i put that in, i got 708 hits. lesson 22 -- strategic long-term thinking usually beats knee-jerk reactions. following the death of robert la follette in 1925, a petition circulated asking belle la follette to become a candidate to fill her husband's unexpired term. she could easily become the first woman senator, but she chose not to run. a petition signed by hundreds of women asked, dear mrs. la follette, will you, can you turboturn away from your heritage, your people, your shepherdless flock. belle la follette will stand as one whose ambitions for her husband and their sons was ambitious first of all that their shared ideas of social justice, which were also her ideals, should prevail. his mother recognized that her term would be granted more as a tribute to her late husband than as a serious political investment. by virtue of his sex as well as his age, robert junior would be far more likely than his mother to be repeatedly reelected and could therefore lead the la fo