My job was to get a fair and open hearing to all ideas.

Everyone is entitled to a fair hearing.

Power focuses on self-preservation; principle focuses on making ideas successful.

All I want to do is get back to a principle-based Congress.

Groupthink can become a serious issue - old ideas stay around after they're useful, and new ideas too often don't get a fair hearing.

The process for producing public policy in Congress is flawed. The process itself kills policy ideas through the bypassing of the rules and procedural decisions that limit discussion.