WASHINGTON – Asked to describe his attitude in his last few months in office, Sen. Mark Dayton cited a line from the 1960s song “Me and Bobby McGee.”
“Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose,” he says.
Dayton, a first-term Minnesota Democrat, isn't seeking re-election and, these days, sounds very much like a politician with little to lose.
In February, upset about a plan by a South Dakota railroad to run coal trains close to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Dayton said the clinic “is worth a hell of a lot more than the whole state of South Dakota.”
He later apologized for the remark.
The following month, he called fellow Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold's proposal to censure President Bush over a warrantless surveillance program “an overreaching step by someone who is grandstanding and running for president at the expense of his own party and his own country.”
Dayton did not apologize for that.
He even told a Minnesota high school group he would give himself an “F” if he had to grade his accomplishments in the Senate.
“And I would give the entire Congress, of which I'm a member, an F for results,” Dayton said in an interview.
He pointed out that he also told the students he would give himself an “A-minus” for effort.
Dayton, 59, announced last year that he would not seek re-election, concluding that Democrats could field a stronger candidate.
His reputation took a beating months earlier when he temporarily closed his Senate office, citing a secret intelligence report that he said made him fear for his staff's safety.
Dayton said he continues takes his position seriously, “but the fact that I'm not up for re-election, every word is not going to be politically dissected, gives me a certain freedom that I haven't felt before.”
He said he has felt more relaxed without the pressures of raising money and having a “political target on my back.”
“Mark Dayton is in his last months in public office, probably ever,” said Larry J. Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics. “He hasn't had a particularly successful tenure. So why not speak out as bluntly as possible and have some fun?”
Dayton doesn't have to worry about post-Senate employment. He is a multimillionaire, and has been donating his $165,200 Senate salary to the Minnesota Senior Federation.
