We have to stop harming children in child care. I'm trying to make us stop. I wouldn't know what to do otherwise.

The problem in child care, which really all of us are going to have to think hard on, is that there is no really great solution that we can come up with for ages zero to three.

I don't think child care is ever going to be much of a federal effort. Just like education. Six or 7 percent - that's all I want from the government. Pay that piece of it for poor or developmentally disabled children.

So there's much more to life than one's intelligence score. To be a decent human being. To have some character.

You win what you can win when you can win it, and keep pushing - all the time. And that's how this game is played. And I'll play it till I can't play it anymore.

I know all the problems of the schools. They're rigid, they're bureaucratic, they've got a lot of problems. But it's such an important institution, and holds such promise.

I thought the whole idea of being a conservative was to keep the government from messing around in people's lives. And yet they say the government should be getting into people's families. That's messing pretty heavily where I come from.