I had an opportunity to express my views, yes. I agreed with the approach which we took, namely, to make a distinction between the loss of life of the Chinese pilot and our military operations outside territorial waters or territorial limits.

Power is the great aphrodisiac.

The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer.

I think Vladimir Putin will give up power.

Oil is much too important a commodity to be left in the hands of the Arabs.

Committees are consumers and sometimes sterilizers of ideas, rarely creators of them.

High office teaches decision making, not substance. It consumes intellectual capital; it does not create it. Most high officials leave office with the perceptions and insights with which they entered; they learn how to make decisions but not what decisions to make.