You never say to a president for certain you wouldn't do anything, but I have no - look at me now - I have no desire to sit on the Supreme Court, none. It would be a great honor , but I have no desire, any more than George Mitchell did.

I also acknowledge that prejudice runs very deep in our society. And, in the real world, discrimination rears its ugly head in the shadows, where it's very difficult to root it out.

It's gonna be one of the great achievements of this administration.

Politics is a damn expensive business. I had one hell of a time trying to raise money as a candidate. I had to put a second mortgage on our house to get that campaign started, and I ended up spending over $300,000 to get elected. I believe that public financing of federal election campaigns is the only thing that will insure good candidates and save the two-party system. It is the most degrading thing in the world to go out with your hat in your hand and beg for money, but that's what you have to do if you haven't got your own resources.

The reason I'm a Democrat is because the essence of the Democratic Party is an abhorrence for the abuse of power on the one hand, and the notion that everyone's entitled to be treated with dignity. That message never got through.

In the middle of a recession, where we're just climbing out of it, where the economy -unemployment is still at 9.7 percent, the idea of raising taxes and reducing spending is a prescription for disaster.

Resist the temptation to ascribe motive, because you really don't know - and it gets in the way of being able to reach a consensus on things that matter to you and to many other people.