we've also have a history of great material in minnesota from jesse ventura, to paul wellstone to al franken and norm coleman and now our sister state wisconsin, we have the scott walker recall, which we also have a tremendous just a tremendous opportunity to fact check what these candidates say. minnesota is not going to be a battleground state. generally, we are thought in this presidential campaign to be purple. we lean democratic. but we don't expect it to be a battleground state per se. however, we have a major market in minneapolis, st. paul. and we bleed into iowa and also to wisconsin, so we will get a lot of this. as a matter of fact, we very already seen major buys, advance buys for the fall in minneapolis-st. paul. they're already starting to monitor that. so we are going to see that. i am surprised that we have not seen yet much of the recall advertising for western wisconsin but we do also expect that in just the next couple of weeks. i'd like to talk more about that and also the challenges and cost of being a reporter trying to put this together. but i have to thank in

i would cite the case for him of paul wellstone who came to the u.s. senate when i was there, to stick it in jesse helms i believe it was his earthy phrase, and he got to know jesse and after a year jesse and wellstone were sponsoring legislation together. there is some softening agents in there, but they are not like they were before. the softening agents in the senate are not there, the sharp edge people are there. and then you have a couple leaders you know, you've got harry and mitch and they are both a cupful prize fighters and they love the ring. they are good at it. and they know how to hold their troops. you can tell one of your member you mess around too much with the other guy they are going to make you the chairman of the journal committee. or the ranking member. >> you don't sound that optimistic. do you think that these issues are going to be addressed and solved particularly in the u.s. senate with the rules as they are right now? >> that things can be soxed with the rules the way they are now. >> basically 60 votes to get anything done.

you know, paul wellstone, i was in minnesota raising money for paul. iving room of my dear friend, ruth, a big political operative in minnesota. we were in her home in minneapolis. i was standing next to wellstone two weeks before he was killed. and coleman took over. and franken had someone to run against. and franken could come in. even though he was a native son that left and made his career in new york and in los angeles, went back and reinvigorated the democratic spine of that state. although that state is a little bit schizophrenic that way. here in new york you have safe democratic seats across the board statewide. have you a democratic governor who walks on water as far as a lot of people are concerned. he is getting a lot of good things done. he is ka joeling and corralling that horrible estate house up in albany. the bennians

he reminded us of another senator, paul wellstone.killed with his wife and daughter in a plane crash in 2002. franken remembered what mrs. wellstone stood for and it was a pretty powerful moment. take a look. >> madame president, sheila wellstone isn't with us today. sheila and paul and their daughter marsha were tragically taken from us too soon, but sheila's example is with us. her legacy is with us and her words are with us. and i'd like to close with those. here's what sheila said. we really have to look at the values that guide us. we have to work toward an ethic that respects every individual to be physically and emotionally safe. no one regardless of age, color, gender, background, any other factor deserves to be physically or emotionally unsafe. in a just society, we pledge to act together to ensure that each individual is safe from harm. in a just society, i think we have to say this over and over and over. we are not going to tolerate the violence. >> after franken's emotional appeal, the senate passed it by a wide margin. t