If we say the Geneva Convention is obsolete, then what do others who have our soldiers say?

Ideological warriors whether from the Left or the Right are bad news for the bench. They tend to make law, not interpret law. And that's not what any of us should want from our judges.

We are on the precipice of a crisis, a Constitutional crisis. The checks and balances, which have been at the core of this Republic, are about to be evaporated by the nuclear option. The checks and balances that say if you get 51% of the vote, you don't get your way 100% of the time. It is amazing, it's almost a temper tantrum.

I respect people who feel things passionately. I do. But when someone is a judge, that is not what they should bring to the bench. It is not really passion, except in rare instances, that serves the bench well. It is, rather, an ability to understand the law and follow it.

I'm strongly for a patient Bill of Rights. Decisions ought to be made by doctors, not accountants.

If we are going to stay a great power and I hope and pray we will we need the truth. We need to know what is going right and we need to know what is going wrong. There is no greater time than now.

I went to the public schools myself. And they were great for me.

Anyone who thinks they have a monopoly on truth, and there is only one way to see the world, always gets us into trouble.

You do have to change things as warfare changes.

But I don't think the Democratic Party is at eye level with the middle class.

I made education the highest priority of my campaign - actually education and jobs - and the reason is a simple one: I think the future of America depends on it.

I want to attract the best people into teaching.

As long as the Palestinians send terrorists onto school buses and to nightclubs to blow up people, Israel has no choice but to build the fence.

Do not let arguments of expediency persuade you. That is the slow road to oblivion. That is the tortured path to undoing step by step, bit by bit, as the river creates a canyon, the way of life that we love.

We need to make sure middle-class people are able to pay the bills. We need to make sure that poor people don't starve. Those are values, too.

I believe the war on terror is the vital discussion of this decade and of our generation, probably. To win the war on terror, you need a good offense and a good defense. On defense, I regret to say, basically, this administration has not come close to doing what is necessary.

A devastating commentary on the war in Iraq is that we have been unable to spend money on infrastructure.

Arafat was a barrier to peace.

Voters did say 'repeal health care,' they did say 'reduce the size of government.' But not a single one of them from the tea party or anywhere said 'give tax breaks to the wealthiest.'

We tend to talk, Democrats, as a party, in legislative terms.

America is a place where we all come together. It is a place of consensus.

When one has success, the answer is not to undo that success. It is to continue what has been done.

I think teaching should be an exalted profession, not a picked-on profession.

If we say the Geneva Convention is obsolete, then what do others who have our soldiers say?

So I want my kids to go to public schools because I think it's a better education overall.

In today's competitive economy, to stand still is to die.

Democrats don't relate to middle-class people.

You can set up whatever negotiations or structure you want, but until the Palestinians are willing to accept the fact, as the majority of Israelis do, that there should be two states between the Jordan and the Mediterranean, we won't have peace.

You know, we have three branches of government. We have a House. We have a Senate. We have a President.

Well, I think it's too early to call Fallujah a failure.

Well, the tough thing for them is that the Republican primary is pretty far over to the right, just as the Democratic primary is further over to the left than the average voter in each party.

Soft money will find its way and seep into the political system and corrode it, unless we plug every hole.

I'm totally opposed to vouchers. I will fight them tooth and nail.

But these days there are a lot of younger people who would like to go into teaching but don't because the economic opportunities are sometimes elsewhere.

Let me say this, to all of the chattering class that so much focuses on those little tiny, yes, porky amendments - the American people really don't care.

Inaction is perhaps the greatest mistake of all.

Giving up even an ounce of precious freedom is a very serious thing to do.

It is essential that all Americans take the time to honor and remember those individuals who gave their lives in defense of our liberty.

Whether you are a Democrat or Republican, whether you are a liberal or a conservative, we know that neither this President nor prior Presidents of both parties did everything right or we would not have had a 9/11.

I'd like to see the health care professionals making decisions, not some bureaucrat in Indianapolis working for an insurance company.

In a brave new world, a post-September 11 world, anyone is going to make certain mistakes. The mistakes that have been made on homeland security, on protecting our Nation from another terrorist attack, are mistakes of omission. We are simply not doing enough.

If you have a sharp bold economic message, you can unite everybody.

But in the first Gulf war the United Kingdom was not under any threat from Iraq, and is still less so in the second one. Then there is no justification for obstructing freedom of information, particularly as nations have a right to know what their soldiers are being used for.

A handful of soldiers is always better than a mouthful of arguments.

Our brave soldiers and support personnel are engaged in a battle as important as any the United States has ever before waged, for the success of democracy in Iraq is a crucial test of the ideals this Nation was founded upon.

Our main battle has always been against Israeli soldiers and Jewish settlers.

But it's been a great, humbling - and I've been very honored to have the opportunity to serve and to lead and to be the representative of our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who are in Washington. And it's been the greatest honor of my life.

There's another issue here - and I have some limits as to what I can say - but there's some real question as to the viability of the chemical masks, the protective gear used by our soldiers.

One of the great joys this year and the year before has been how all of the people in this body, men and women, Republicans and Democrats, have worked together so well with our chairman and the chairman of the full committee to address the issues of housing for our soldiers.