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.