Quotable Candidates - Sen. Mike Gravel

Mike Gravel, former two-term senator from Alaska at age 76 running for the Democratic nomination for President:

"I have one small favor to ask of all of you. Whenever anyone raises the question of my age in this campaign, please point out that Washington is in great need of adult supervision."

"Politics as Usual is not acceptable for the presidency. I feel I am entitled to raise this issue because when I served in the Senate, during the Vietnam War, I spoke truth to power. I officially released the Pentagon Papers, and as a result, Richard Nixon sued me all the way to the Supreme Court. I successfully filibustered to force an end to the military draft. I filibustered alone and with others to end the appropriations for the Vietnam War. Those are my credentials. I’ve been there and know how hard it is to oppose the majority of your peers. I ask that you hold other presidential candidates to the same standard. Political leaders who had the opportunity and the power to stop the Iraq war before it could get started and did nothing––allowed it to happen."

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