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DEBBIE GAGE: Mondale said the Senate Committee will not just be looking at the CIA, but at a whole host of agencies and organizations-- the FBI, the IRS, the Secret Service, the Postal Department, Customs, the Armed Services, the Defense Department, and possibly even organized labor.

Mondale said the Rockefeller Commission's mandate was far too narrow for its findings to be more than a starting point for the Senate Committee. And he thinks there could be a whole web of illegal activities, which either are or have been taking place. He said, "Some illegal CIA activities, which go back several administrations, were authorized at very high levels of government."

WALTER MONDALE: We need classified information. But anybody who's been around the federal government, realizes that classification is abused. I've had people tell me the only way I can get my superiors to read what I say is to put a top secret on it-- stamp. If I just put confidential, nobody will read it. They don't think it's important. And I've looked at this stuff everything's classified.

Time Magazine's last week articles are classified, everything's classified. So if you can't report anything that's classified, I'll guarantee you you won't dare report anything. And we live in a democracy. And how you draw a line between crucial, fundamental, secrets of a profound nature, and on the need for a society to be fully public and open. I don't know, except to say this, that I would prefer to ear on the side of public disclosure.

DEBBIE GAGE: Mondale said both Congress and the executive have failed to make the CIA accountable, and he liked the Rockefeller Commission's recommendation for a joint congressional committee to supervise future CIA activities. He is also anxious to see the file the FBI has on him, because he once read in the paper that the FBI was trailing him along with Senator Muskie of Maine and the late Adlai Stevenson.

The conversation then turned to politics. And Mondale said he thought Senator Hubert Humphrey could get the Democratic nomination for presidency for 1976 if he chose to run. Mondale supporting Humphrey, saying he's the best loved of all the Democratic candidates, and he said the Democrats need a strong candidate to offset another challenge to the party by George Wallace.

WALTER MONDALE: In 1968 when Humphrey ran for president and we really went out and told Americans who George Wallace really was, he ended up a minor regional candidate. Given the kind of candidate I hope will come up with that can happen again.

In 1972, I don't think we did well. I like George McGovern, but I think the net result of his campaign was to strengthen George Wallace. Because we gave the mistaken impression that we did not understand or identify, nor were we fully committed to the people living on average incomes.

I don't think that was the case. I don't think McGovern meant to say that. But that impression was left, and that strengthened Mr. Wallace.

DEBBIE GAGE: Mondale said Minnesota was right in prohibiting a presidential primary, because the presidential campaign process is already a shambles. But he said if Humphrey does not run in the primaries, as he said he won't, the convention will probably be splintered and Humphrey's chances of getting the nomination will be lessened.

But he hastened to add that one virtue of the Democratic Party was its unwillingness to dictate choice of candidates. He said a splintered convention is natural and that's what democracy is all about. At last report, the Democrats were running 14 candidates for the presidency. I'm Debbie Gage.