You may have seen my recent television ad that mentions my mother.  With Mother’s Day tomorrow, I decided to post a longer video tribute to her.  I hope you will take a minute to watch.

As those of you who’ve seen my recent TV commercial already know, I contracted polio when I was two years old.  This was at a time before the vaccine that eventually eased what were very real fears shared by families across America.

After the doctors told my mother what had happened, they instructed her that she would have to keep me off my feet – quite a challenge when you have a two-year-old.  For two years she would administer physical therapy five times a day.  Had it not been for her tenacity, it is possible that I would have been permanently disabled.  I am forever grateful for her commitment to me and for the opportunities she gave me.

My mother taught me about hard work and perseverance.  She taught me that if you really exert yourself and go all out, chances are that things are going to turn out well.  My mother is certainly the hero in my life.

The editorial section of today's Wall Street Journal features an interview with Senator Mitch McConnell. You can read the entire interview here.

"There's no way to repeal the laws of economics. Just like we had to work our way through the high-tech bubble, we're going to have to work our way through this. There have been a lot of housing speculators, and I worry that we might craft something that benefits people who were basically engaged in housing speculating."

So says Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, sitting in his office just off the Senate floor. And while the Kentucky Republican and his GOP colleagues hold just 49 of the Senate's 100 seats, recent history suggests that a housing bailout is going nowhere without his support.

Across a range of issues, Mr. McConnell has lately been particularly influential. This leads to a political trivia question: Republicans held the majority in the U.S. Senate until the end of 2006. In which year did the Senate pass relief from the Alternative Minimum Tax without raising other taxes, legal immunity for phone companies who respond to federal wiretap requests, and the longest-ever extension of the Internet tax moratorium? Hint: It was also the year that the Senate actually held spending down to the level of the president's request.

The correct answer is 2007. "It was kind of an out-of-body experience," says Mr. McConnell. One year after losing "control" of the Senate, the 23-year veteran lawmaker was savoring a series of legislative victories. "I propped my feet up on my desk and watched the House pass our agenda."

He adds to the list of GOP accomplishments "an energy bill without tax or rate increases." Add an asterisk to this one – given the bill's egregious biofuel subsidies. But his point is legitimate. Washington could have done a lot more harm last year.

"When I woke up after the election in November 2006," Mr. McConnell says, "I realized I was going to be the Republican leader and not the majority leader. That was the bad news." The one-time county judge continues: "The good news is that 49 is not a bad number in a body that requires 60. The United States Senate is the only legislative body in the world where a majority is not enough."

Though he has used a variety of political and parliamentary tactics to steer bad ideas off the rails, Mr. McConnell simply credits the Senate's cloture rules, which require 60 votes to force consideration of any bill. "My goal from the very beginning, which my Republican colleagues have supported without exception, basically, is to use the power of 41 – or more – to do one of two things: either to stop things that are totally awful . . . or more frequently, to use the power of 41 to shape." He adds, "Really bad ideas die in the Senate, and in that sense it has protected America from extremes throughout our history."

His Senate office has a particularly rich history. When the young American government moved to the District of Columbia at the end of President John Adams's term, Mr. McConnell's current space was the only completed portion of the Capitol building. With the House Chamber still under construction, it was the scene of the congressional vote to break the electoral tie of 1800 and make Thomas Jefferson our third president. In August 1814, the office housed the fledgling Library of Congress, which became the biofuel the British used to burn down much of the building.

Today, there are no fireworks in the office of the soft-spoken GOP leader. The space is immaculate, and the staff is exceedingly polite, even by the standards of Capitol Hill.

A portrait of Theodore Roosevelt hangs near that of Ronald Reagan in the foyer; the inner office features a painting of former Kentucky Sen. John Sherman Cooper, for whom Mr. McConnell once interned. The Senate minority leader says he has tried to follow Sherman's example of "extraordinary integrity" and seeks a similar reputation for being "credible, thoughtful on every issue." Mr. McConnell adds that Sherman "was much more liberal than I am."

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Protection against terrorism may yet prove to be a potent issue this November. Temporary wiretap authority enacted last year has expired. The Senate has passed a bill – supported by Mr. McConnell – clarifying the government's ability to target overseas terrorist communications without a court order. But Ms. Pelosi and her colleagues in the House Democratic leadership have refused to go along, even to allow a vote on the measure. Among the reasons is that the bill grants immunity to phone companies that respond in good faith when the feds ask for help in matters of national security.

Based on the declared support of House Democrats for the Senate bill, Mr. McConnell says the bill would pass if it came to a vote. Of Ms. Pelosi and her colleagues' obstructionism he comments tartly, "It would make you believe that they'd rather see companies in court than terrorists in jail."

Some 40 lawsuits have been filed against phone companies who responded to government requests for wiretaps in the aftermath of 9/11. Mr. McConnell believes the Democratic leadership is doing a favor for the trial lawyers, a key party constituency.

"It shows you how far they're willing to go," he says, "to enrich these obscenely wealthy characters who practice this kind of law. They'll do anything for them, even jeopardize the security of the United States of America." Cooperation from private firms is essential to conduct intelligence operations, he adds. "This is a private-sector activity. We're not in the phone business. There will be no terrorist-intercept program without the cooperation of the private sector."

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