The family is not only a living arrangement. It has always been a symbol of survival.

I held out my hand and George Mitchell said, "Like in everything else, you lead and I'll follow." And the crowd broke up, and we did a twirl or two around the dance floor. And that's like him, you know, he was there for his members, he campaigned for us, he believed in us, and he was really a good sport as well.

We don't have a caucus, because we differ on so many views. Some of us are pro-choice, some are not. We'll take the issue of drilling, for example: Lisa Murkowski would want to drill in ANWAR, Maria Cantwell, Barbara Boxer, and most of us would say no, and so we don't. But we get together once a month for dinner, and we have three rules: no memos, no staff, and no leaks; and we get together for friendship. In fact, we're having a dinner tonight. We just have drinks and talk about life and times.

One hundred thousand dollars was the bridge that enabled me to go on TV, not miss a beat or miss an opportunity, and raise then my own money to carry me forth. And that's how I got to be the first Democratic woman in the United States Senate's history.

I am emphatically against the privatization of Social Security. It is going to hurt millions of American women, American families and ultimately the whole country

I'm so proud of Maryland's firefighters, risking their lives to protect others, but we need to protect our protectors with the best equipment training and resources

I think, though, with that whole sense of integrity and a lot of things that have been going on, the shared leadership rather than the titular head.