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Morning News

Louisiana Gov. Foster Discusses Decision to Attend Law School

Aired August 23, 2000 - 10:20 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Now to Louisiana's governor who is taking a new challenge: He's going to law school. Governor Mike Foster has started courses at Southern University in Baton Rouge nearly a half-century after earning his first college degree.

The governor joins us now to talk about why, of all the things he has on his plate, he has decided to go back to law school.

Governor, good morning.

GOV. MIKE FOSTER JR. (R), LOUISIANA: Good morning, Daryn.

KAGAN: From everything I've been able to read, lawyers are not at the top of your list -- of your love list. In fact, I think you're pretty not that fond of lawyers, shall we say. So why are you joining the group?

Well, that's not really true. I got a lot of respect for lawyers. My son's a lawyer, my grandparents are lawyers.

KAGAN: Some of your best friends are lawyers, huh?

FOSTER: Some of my very best friends, seriously, they are. And it was part of the law I wasn't too fond of. It had gotten to the point in Louisiana where you could hardly run a business because the law had gotten structured where it did a lot of harassing of business and made you spend a lot time unnecessarily. But we fixed that already.

But I've always been interested in the law. I took a correspondence course 30 years -- 40 years ago in the service. And they changed the law where you couldn't read law anymore and take the bar exam, so I sort of gave up on it. When I first got elected governor, I asked both schools if they would take me as a part-time student. They told me they wouldn't. So I asked the chancellor at Southern one more time here a few months ago and he says, you sound serious, I'm going to try to make room for you. And they did.

KAGAN: So, if I can ask your age, respectfully: 70 years old. Is that right?

FOSTER: Seventy this July, yes.

KAGAN: Happy birthday. (LAUGHTER)

FOSTER: Thank you.

KAGAN: Is that your way of saying it's never too late to take on a life's dream?

FOSTER: Absolutely. And I'll tell you, I've got a saying that if you don't risk failure, you don't do much. And I realize this is a big, big chore, trying to run the state and do this. I think I can squeeze the time in and not do my job any harm.

KAGAN: Logistically, Governor, how are you going to do this? You're going half-time to law school.

FOSTER: Right, but that's two mornings a week and a lot of night studying. And I'm an early bird. I go to bed early, 8:00, every night. I get up early, too, about 5:30 or 6:00. But this means I'm going to have to stay up a little bit later and do some reading. The biggest challenge, really, is being able to do the reading. I suspect there's at least two, two and a half hours of reading for every hour of the course.

KAGAN: Wow. Ouch. So when it's all said and done, first of all, how long will it take you to get through law school, and what will you do with your degree?

FOSTER: Well, I never -- I'm not ambitious enough to say I'm going to finish. I'm going to go as far as I can, assume that I can take half courses for three and a half years, which I have left. That would get me with a year and a half left. Maybe I'd just stay here and go full time for a year and a half. It's a life-long ambition. Whether I can do it I have no idea. All I can do is try.

KAGAN: Well, Governor Foster, we wish you well in your efforts.

FOSTER: Thank you, but don't get any mistake: I do not dislike lawyers.

KAGAN: OK, we have it on the record here at CNN MORNING NEWS.

FOSTER: Very good. Thank you.

KAGAN: Thanks for stopping by. We appreciate it. Good luck.

FOSTER: Thank you.

KAGAN: Bill.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: He looks great for 70, huh?

KAGAN: Yes.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com

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