The super PACs have brought an element of fear into the equation. The fact that they can bring this money into the campaign, basically ambush you out of nowhere, and you'll have no way to fight back.

At a time when special interest money is being showered on legislators in Washington, grassroots donors offer members of Congress a refreshing independence. The $25 and $50 donor is not looking for special favors. He or she is simply expecting their Congressman to go do the right thing.

There are certainly days that we can convince ourselves in Washington that everybody's talking about one thing, and then I'll go home to my district and realize that everybody's actually talking about something different.

This fundraising is consuming us. It's impossible to overstate, I think, what it's doing to members and their ability to just focus on the job that they were elected to do. The collective concentration of the institution is being undermined every day by the need to fund-raise.

If you make any money, the government shoves you in the creek once a year with it in your pockets, and all that don't get wet you can keep.

A people cannot long retain their freedom, whose government is incapable of protecting them.

I've been blessed with three wonderful careers: motion pictures and television, wife, mother and grandmother... and diplomatic services for the United States government.

But I was amazed at how organized the Palestinian election authority was, how competent they were in setting up their polling places and the poll workers they had.