There's one advantage in having been around as long as I have. Everybody in the Senate knows me, and - I'm going to say something presumptuous, to repeat myself - I think most respect me.

And Bobby [Jindal] and I are both Catholics.

The worst thing we can do as a nation is taking the easy way out. If you start opening up offshore drilling, then you are buying time and you are not addressing the fundamental problem with fossil fuels.

I still care deeply about so many thing. And so I'm going to be engaged. I'm going to be out there as - with a platform to talk about the things that I care about: foreign policy and, you know, violence against women, you know, the inequity in the tax structure.

Not that I've always agreed with what she said - far from it - but Justice Sandra Day O'Connor has been properly lauded, in my view, as a judge who approached her duties with open-mindedness and with a sensitivity that affects her decisions would have on everyday, ordinary people.

Let's just be smart this time. I'm looking for smart.

The single biggest stimulus to the economy are the unemployment benefits we're paying. These people go out and they spend the money. They go out and they have to get by to everything from paying their mortgage or buying food or just getting by. It has a significant impact on economic growth and the continuation of economic growth.