I was an intelligence officer not a policy-maker.

When I resigned I put the U.S. Government on notice that I'm going to stick to policy issues that I have no intention of going out and blowing the cover off of the intelligence operations that those are truly sensitive and they should not be exposed.

Intelligence is playing a more important role in policymaker decisions than I think I've ever seen in my time in Congress or before.

Well I've been reading a lot about the fifty years since the Second World War about Western foreign policy and all that. I try not to let it get to me but sometimes I just think that there's no hope.

I told the President I told Rahm Emanuel and others in the administration that I thought the policy they took to try to bring about negotiations is counter-productive because when you give the Palestinians hope that the United States will do its negotiating for them they are not going to sit down and talk.

We need to have a pro-growth policy put in place that offers people hope and offers the opportunity for businesses to expand and for them to have confidence in what the world is going to look like for the next two or three or four years with respect to economic policy.

I hope I'm wrong but I am afraid that Iraq is going to turn out to be the greatest disaster in American foreign policy - worse than Vietnam not in the number who died but in terms of its unintended consequences and its reverberation throughout the region.

A handful of works in history have had a direct impact on social policy: one or two works of Dickens some of Zola 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' and in modern drama Larry Kramer's 'The Normal Heart.'

American policy seems to be wed to a perpetual state of war. Why? History shows that the world will always be in flux or turmoil with different peoples competing for visibility and power. The U.S. cannot fix the fate of every nation.

I would put our legislative and foreign policy accomplishments in our first two years against any president - with the possible exceptions of Johnson FDR and Lincoln - just in terms of what we've gotten done in modern history. But you know but when it comes to the economy we've got a lot more work to do. And we're gonna keep on at it.

As we get closer to the end of this Congress we should be addressing the urgent needs of the American people - the war in Iraq affordable health care a sensible energy policy quality education for our children retirement security and a sound and fair fiscal policy.

The biggest mistakes early on involved foreign policy and involved the strategy for health care.

During my nearly five years as director-general of WHO high-level policymakers have increasingly recognized that health is central to sustainable development.

There is much that public policy can do to support American entrepreneurs. Health insurance reform will make it easier for entrepreneurs to take a chance on a new business without putting their family's health at risk. Tort reform will make it easier to take prudent risks on new products in a number of sectors.

Because we spoke so loudly opponents of reproductive health access demonized and smeared me and others on the public airwaves. These smears are obvious attempts to distract from meaningful policy discussions and to silence women's voices regarding their own health care.

What is at stake in the debate over health care is more than the mere crafting of policy. The issue is now the identity of the Democratic Party.

Justice is itself the great standing policy of civil society and any eminent departure from it under any circumstances lies under the suspicion of being no policy at all.