Previous | Next
Session: 1234567891011121314151617 Page 323324325326327328329330331332333334335336337338339340341342343344345346347348349350351352353354355356357358359360361362363364 of 755
What made you decide not to take that, though?
The difficulty in all of these offers was that I was comparing the job I had with the things that they were offering. And quite frankly there were none of them as tempting as the opportunity that I had that I was already in.
I think that I would have enjoyed a term or two in the Senate. As I look back on some of the people that I've come to know quite intimately in the Senate, I'm not so sure that I would have been all that happy. Certainly I had a job that gave me almost everything I wanted it. If you wanted to, you could say there was a certain amount of educational opportunity in it. The news part of it was very interesting, the entertainment side was fabulous. Its impact, its influence in the world, at that time was quite remarkable. From a business point of view, it was challenging. There was just nothing, really, that I could think of that would have been as much fun, and I use the word fun in the best sense of the word-- as much fun as what I was doing. If I had been in a less interesting position, these other opportunities might have been attractive. If I could have gone out of CBS for, let's say, two years, four years, and known that I could come back, that might have been tempting. But I knew that once I left, I would be out forever. And I wasn't prepared to take that step, because what I had was, I think, in the end, better than what I was offered. And I'm not talking money, I'm just talking the challenge of the work. I hadn't realized that there were as many of these opportunities as you've dredged up by your question.
I had a feeling there were quite a few.
© 2006 Columbia University Libraries | Oral History Research Office | Rights and Permissions | Help