And I'm the kind of manager that doesn't believe that you micro-manage professionals. They should understand their responsibility and carry out those responsibility.

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.

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

After leaving law school, I intentionally said that I never wanted to hold a job more than six years.

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

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.

I was soon drawn to the Republican Party because I realized that it truly, not just rhetorically, believed in equality.