As an intelligence officer, if you don't have a security clearance, you really don't have a job. My military position was, and has been, frozen, for four years.

I just figured, for the most part, mainstream networks stopped using [mistress word]. Those are small brush fires. The election made me realize we've got forest fires that we collectively need to be focused on.

A lot of women were betting on me because there were so few role models and I let them down. They had put me on a pedestal. I maybe enjoyed being in that limelight, but I couldn't reverse what I had done.

My peers are all in sensitive jobs - at the C.I.A., the National Security Council, working for the Department of Defense. They can't stand up for me in public.

[My kids] were very young at the time and didn't realize what was going on. We told them that mom made a mistake and people want to talk about it in the news so they're outside our house.

If I'm strong, I'm not going to apologize for being strong.

It's part of the reason I decided to speak out now. This was the tipping point for me. If it's O.K. for [David Petraeus ] to campaign for a job in the administration, then I'm going to campaign to get back out there, too.