Trent Lott: “How about helping out families by letting them make the choice on how to use that money at the local level?”

When you're dealing with 100 United States senators, let alone 435 House members, you're not going to get it all the way you want it. The president's going to have to give some, the president is going to have to show leadership.

You've got to do that every now and then. Even though you might get your little flak from some of the people within your conference. It's called leadership.

My recommendation to the Congress and to the president would be, quit campaigning, quit having press conferences. Sit down at a round table and negotiate a deal.

I was accused of being a compromiser or a deal-maker. I didn't know those were dirty words.