When the women's movement began, it was a middle-class phenomenon. Certainly, black women had other stuff to think about in the '60s besides a women's movement. Working-class women were slow to get into it.

In college, the guys aren't worrying about whether they'll be able to pursue their career dreams and still have kids.

I admired the way McCain worked on campaign finance reform. I admired the way Nancy Pelosi stiffened the Democrats' spine during the health care debate. I admire the way Barack Obama has raised a dog in the White House without ever putting it on the roof of the car for a vacation drive.

You can hit as many revolutions as you want, but women are always going to wear uncomfortable shoes that look good.

This is America, and we don't restrict our battles over people's sex lives to 11 months a year

When people say this isn't the America they grew up in, they're right. Nobody gets to grow old in the America they grew up in.

Phil Gramm had a stump speech about how his mother's devotion kept him from being an academic failure in life. She got him into a special school that turned him around - under a government program for the children of deceased veterans. He was repeatedly asked at press conferences why he would then turn around and support draconian cuts in federal funding for education. He never had an answer.