There are few things more amusing in the world of politics than watching moderate Republicans charging to the right in pursuit of greater glory.

A shining city is perhaps all the president sees from the portico of the White House and the veranda of his ranch, where everyone seems to be doing well. But there's another part to the shining city. In this part of the city there are more poor than ever, more families in trouble, more and more people who need help but can't find it.

Those two principles: We're supposed to love one another and we're supposed to work together to make the experience better. That's all the religion you need, really, to make a success of this planet.

Democracy is not meant to be efficient, it is meant to be fair.

People expect Byzantine, Machiavellian logic from politicians. But the truth is simple. Trial lawyers learn a good rule: 'Don't decide what you don't have to decide.' That's not evasion, it's wisdom.

Way down deep the American people are afraid of an entangling relationship between formal religions - or whole bodies of religious belief - and government.

People asked me what I want as an epitaph: 'He tried'