When you think of pristine preservation of America, you immediately think of Tulsa and Oklahoma.

It doesn't have to be the same line that we have had for the last 40 years, because that clearly isn't working on any level. But you have got to have a pretty clear line on this crucial issue.

The lobbying over China most favored nation trading status was disgusting. There's no way in hell that MFN would have passed in '95, '96, '97, '98, '99, 2000 if all these companies hadn't come in flooding and making campaign contributions and ask for people's support. That drove the debate. Every year was the allure of corporate dollars flooding into members' bank accounts.

The White House, as Warren Harding said, and I think accurately, is an alchemist. We find out the strengths, the weaknesses and the smarts and the dumbs of whoever those occupants are under the pressure of the presidency.

The studies that show the reason Washington real estate is booming and there are so many lobbyists in town, it does pay.

Presidential trust is something, that's perishable and it's precious. And once a president loses it, it's not a question of whether it's conflict of interests laws or there aren't conflict of interests laws.

[The Republicans] looked at basically the failed wars and they said, oh, this, us being the policeman of the world, that is not working.