Mike Gravel left politics a quarter of a century ago, pretty much disgusted. Before then, representing Alaska in the U.S. Senate for 12 years, he once led a five-month filibuster resulting in the end of the military draft. That same year, 1971, he read the Pentagon Papers into the public record. Fast-forward to April, 2006: Gravel embarked on his most quixotic mission yet.GOOD: You left public office in 1981. Over the years, have you often wished to be back in the Senate?MIKE GRAVEL: Only on the 11th of October, 2002, when the Senate approved the Iraq War resolution. I'd have filibustered that sucker and stuck it up their nose with a pitchfork.How come nobody did that?No guts. No guts. No guts.Why?No guts. You hear all the time, "We've got to compromise. We've got to get along and go along." There are times to compromise. But a lot of times when you compromise, all you get is a big plate of mush. When principle is at stake, there is no compromise. That's the reason I was not loved by my peers in the Senate. Many of them hated me.So why run for president now?A friend of mine called me. He was down in Mexico. He says, "Gravel, I've got the answer. I know how you can bring national attention to the National Initiative-you're going to run for president." I told him he was nuts. I maybe used an expletive or two, and that was it. And about three months later I came to the conclusion that he was right. If I was going to live to see this happen, I would have to run for president and use the celebrity nature of the contest to focus attention on the federal ballot initiative called the National Initiative.That is the cornerstone of your campaign and would be the foundation of your presidency. How would this be a departure from current policy?The major part of my activity is to make people lawmakers. In fact, I firmly believe that the people should make 100 percent of the policy decisions that affect your life. And I will provide the leadership for them to do that. That's when the Congress will shape up, because when the people have this kind of power, Congress will do a better job. If they don't shape up, the people will have the power to wipe them out.You announced your candidacy more than a year ago. Are you usually so ahead of the game?We just got out there. And we didn't form an exploratory committee. We just did it. And we had about $3,000. The announcement cost about $5,000. And I would always say, "Well don't worry, I'm not going to get elected," and, "I don't care if I get elected or not, I'm doing this to bring attention to the National Initiative." Well, after about a month of that, several friends said, "Listen Mike, we believe that you can get elected, and you're demoralizing us with your attitude." And so I shut up. I didn't change my mind-I just shut up.But now you think you've got a real chance?Oh, very much. I started to pay attention [to the other candidates' statements]. They're not talking about solutions-it's all politics as usual. And this country is in serious difficulty. So I came to believe that, hey, I can win, because I'll whip them in debate.
