Reply #30: Wellstone was a stand-up guy. After I wrote all the Dem senators on the issue of Iraq

[Tatiana]

he and Dick Durbin were the only ones who responded to me. (And his message was a personal one; Durbin's seemed like a standard position message.)

In a book he published last year, ''The Conscience of a Liberal'' (Random House), Mr. Wellstone wrote, ''I feel as if 80 percent of my work as a senator has been playing defense, cutting the extremist enthusiasms of the conservative agenda (much of which originates in the House) rather than moving forward on a progressive agenda.''

In a speech in the Senate this month explaining his opposition to the resolution authorizing the use of force in Iraq, Mr. Wellstone stressed that Saddam Hussein was ''a brutal, ruthless dictator who has repressed his own people.''

But Mr. Wellstone went on to say: ''Despite a desire to support our president, I believe many Americans still have profound questions about the wisdom of relying too heavily on a pre-emptive go-it-alone military approach. Acting now on our own might be a sign of our power. Acting sensibly and in a measured way, in concert with our allies, with bipartisan Congressional support, would be a sign of our strength.''

Later, Mr. Wellstone told a reporter that he did not believe his stance would hurt him politically. ''What would really hurt,'' he said, ''is if I was giving speeches and I didn't even believe what I was saying. Probably what would hurt is if people thought I was doing something just for political reasons.''

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