And now, from the University of Chicago Institute of Politics and CNN, the Axviles, with your

host, David Axelrod.

A few people have had more and varied experience in the politics and government of our country.

Ben Ron Clayne has been involved in two administrations.

He served as a staffer in the Senate.

He's run campaigns.

He's been the debate coach for Democratic presidential candidates going back for decades.

He also was the chief counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee.

And I sat down with Ron the other day to talk about his life, his career, and this looming

battle for the vacancy created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.

Ron Clayne, you're a certain icon of the kind of Washington political government scene,

but I went back and read up a little bit about your life.

You weren't raised in a political family or how'd you get interested in all of this?

Well, you know, it's a great story.

I was not raised in a political family at all.

My father owned our family's plumbing supply business in Indianapolis, Indiana.

And it was an inner city business, a very modest business.

But one day in April of 1968, an advanced person decided they needed a place to do a real

people event.

And so Senator Kennedy's campaign came to my father's plumbing supply business and did

the kind of events we've done in politics a million times.

And the little thing where he came in and shook hands and talked about what it was like

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