I was halfway through and just getting to the poignant part, ... I had them in the palm of my hand.

a thankless job. . . . Always a flak-catching job.

My advice to the tea party freshmen: Slow the galloping horses to a trot. Big government was built over decades; it can't be dismantled in a year, especially when Democrats control the White House.

If you allow those who are the most vocal and most antagonistic to get a meeting with the president for fear that publicity will hurt you if you don't, you're creating incentives for your critics to become even more antagonistic and more vocal. Then, you're forever stuck in: Will you or won't you meet? You'll no longer lead. You'll just wrestle with meetings.

What you hear from Al Gore is not what you're going to get. He had overspent the surplus by $900 billion ... and his spending would leave Social Security high and dry.

It's certainly the prerogative of Democrats to vote against tax cuts if that's how they feel,