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Udall Gets Into The Spotlight Congressman lauds his father's humor, legacy at convention By M.E. Sprengelmeyer, Rocky Mountain News July 30, 2004 BOSTON - U.S. Rep. Mark Udall followed his famous father's footsteps to the stage of the Democratic National Convention Thursday, making a plea for civility to save the environment and bridge other emotional divides. Twenty four years after Capitol Hill legend Morris K. Udall roused the party faithful at the 1980 convention, his son cited "Mo" as an example of how to use good humor to find common ground. "My dad used humor, never to humiliate, but to remind us that if you laugh together you can work together," Udall told the crowd at Boston's FleetCenter. The speech was part tribute, part politics. Udall touted Democratic hopeful John Kerry as someone who would help rebuild the unity Americans felt after the Sept. 11 attacks. The speech also included a subtle reference to maverick Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona - a hero among independent voters whom Kerry once courted as a possible running mate. Udall said his father and uncle, former Interior Secretary Stewart Udall, were "public servants who believed you could make a difference - as their friend, Senator McCain has said - by dedicating yourself to a cause greater than your own self interests." "As Westerners, they found inspiration in the great natural beauty of our country, and their cause - among many - was to champion the environment," Udall said. "They reminded us that we haven't inherited God's earth from our parents. We are borrowing it from our children. And they were committed, as we must be, to paying the balance in full, with interest, to our children." The speech wasn't in prime time. It happened a few hours before Kerry was to give his much-anticipated acceptance speech. Still, the appearance placed Udall back on a national stage following his brief entry and rapid exit from Colorado's closely watched U.S. Senate race this spring. Udall has raised his profile during this week's convention. He had a featured role Thursday at a major rally of several hundred environmentalists, speaking after New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and actor Rob Reiner while former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno watched from the crowd. Earlier in the week at a Colorado convention delegation breakfast, Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota made a surprise appearance and said his dream is "that one day I call Mark Udall a colleague" in the Senate. After abandoning his Senate candidacy to support Colorado Attorney General Ken Salazar in this year's race, Udall is considering a run in 2008, when Republican U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard's self-imposed term limit could leave that seat open. Meanwhile, the prospect of getting a Democrat back in the White House has caused some talk of getting somebody named Udall back in the Interior secretary's job. The capital newspaper Roll Call this week said that Mark Udall and his cousin, U.S. Rep. Tom Udall of New Mexico, would be "natural candidates" to become an Interior secretary if there is a Kerry administration. "I'll take either Udall in any (cabinet) position," said Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club, the nation's biggest conservation group. "Mark Udall shares his family's tradition of intelligent, principled and committed public service, and it's genetically impossible for a Udall to be pompous." Udall was characteristically subdued during Thursday's speech about his father, who mounted an unsuccessful presidential campaign in 1976 and then continued his congressional career until 1991. The speech took an emotional turn when Udall described the seven-year struggle that ended with his father's death in 1998. "I also stand here with a hole in my heart because Mo's last years were stolen from him by Parkinson's disease," Udall said. He compared the long battle to the one former President Ronald Reagan faced fighting Alzheimer's disease before his death earlier this year. And he praised Reagan's son, Ron, for his Tuesday convention speech calling on President Bush to ease restrictions on federally funded stem cell research that could eventually lead to cures for diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. "Mo Udall and Ronald Reagan were famous adversaries, but they remained friends," Udall said. "Both were felled by a terrible illness, but both men practiced politics that aimed at the best in human nature." SOURCE: Rocky Mountain News, CO http://tinyurl.com/6orno RELATED STORIES Text of Rep. Mark Udall's speech http://tinyurl.com/47bl5 * * * ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn