We've got a few voices out there who would be a little bit more on the fringe, ... Unfortunately, too often they define the entire party.

That is probably a bit ambitious.

Filibusters have proliferated because under current rules just one or two determined senators can stop the Senate from functioning. Today, the mere threat of a filibuster is enough to stop a vote; senators are rarely asked to pull all-nighters like Jimmy Stewart in 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.'

Sometimes, when I come back to Washington from Indiana, I feel like an ambassador to a foreign country.

Of course, it's a matter of courtesy,

Many good people serve in Congress. They are patriotic, hard-working, and devoted to the public good as they see it, but the institutional and cultural impediments to change frustrate the intentions of these well-meaning people as rarely before.