Once you arrive at an interpretation which you are comfortable in giving, no matter how specious it might be, and you are comfortable doing it, you stay there, you just stay there, and the facts are not going to change you.

What is private and what is discussed behind closed doors, you do not have to be instructed at the age of fifty or sixty or forty or whatever to not talk about it outside.

We have to bring stability to Iraq, otherwise we will be faced with a future dilemma of sending our loved ones into harms way to stop a civil war or the rise of a new tyrant born from the instability that we created.

There is a difference between being a political force, or a political apparent force or a potential force, and between a real discourse or a real argument.

It would be a big favor to political discourse; to our ability to do our work here in Congress; and to the American people, to be able to talk with each other and have some faith in their government and, more importantly, in their future.

One of my problems, so to speak, is that, in America, we tend to think in relatively short-term. In the Middle East and Asia and other parts of the world, they think in terms of centuries or 500 years or 1,000 years.

The reason I love being a senator is that I can have whatever thoughts I have, say whatever I want about any subject at any time, and that is a wonderful feeling of freedom, and I cherish that.