And I always like to stress, it's not a quota, not a set-aside, it's not about race, it's about giving opportunities to demonstrate their abilities to do work with the Federal Government.

You can't rise as a class. You have to rise individually. It's what many of the civil rights-era people don't understand.

I think serving your government is the greatest thing in the world.

So, I have the responsibility of making sure that HUD functions and runs well.

The Bush administration is the most diverse in history because the president fills jobs on the basis of a person's capabilities and qualifications, not on the color of his or her skin.

But I do know this: that the two and a half years that I've been at HUD, I am absolutely convinced that some of the best workers in the world are in Federal Government.

For the first half of my adult life, I was a Democrat.