I think the wall is stupid; it's a waste of the taxpayer's money. We need the money for job growth, infrastructure, 100 other things... it sends a bad message.

Discriminatory wage practices undermine women's ability to provide for their families and survive on a decent retirement income.

I have always stood up to protect women's access to safe and legal abortion, birth control and health care at Planned Parenthood.

I didn't know how to pass a major piece of legislation; I didn't know how to get colleagues to support my views. It took a lot of asking for advice and learning. One of the lessons is that you have to be able to tell people why you care, and you're only going to be able to do that if you talk to someone whom an issue is affecting.

I just simply write as it moves me. I may be writing about a book or a movie or a person, places where I've been or something I've done. Or politics. It's going to what's on my mind at the moment.

In 2003, I wrote a New York Times best-seller called 'Shut Up & Sing,' in which I criticized celebrities like the Dixie Chicks & Barbra Streisand who were trashing then-President George W. Bush. I have used a variation of that title for more than 15 years to respond to performers who sound off on politics.

Making recess appointments when the Senate isn't in recess is neither rational nor moderate. It's a raw misuse of executive power by a president whose love of government is his most vulnerable spot with the electorate.

Government, which does not and did not grant us our rights, must not now seek to deny them by using fear as its justification.