He decided to plunge on with pardons over the department's objections, or where he knew that there would be objections if he had let career prosecutors know what he was doing.

Al Gore seems to have found a great political ploy: Picking up whatever issue he is most vulnerable on and championing the cause. Perhaps he will start to champion perjury statutes and obstruction of justice.

Mistakes were made is something we heard back in '92, and that has sort of been the Clinton administration's mantra. I can't imagine that Al Gore is going to pick up that statement and carry it through the next election.

Phones rang constantly, as if the White House was conducting some kind of pardon telethon.

I shall not remind you, Citizen-Directors, of all I have done for the triumph of liberty, the prosperity of St. Domingo, the glory of the French Republic; nor will I protest to you my attachment to our mother country, to my duties; my respect to the constitution, to the laws of the Republic, and my submission to the government.

No expectations, no tension between goals and performance, no outrage, resolve or intention, no action, no results. There's only one way to get a government - and a nation - to stop drifting to low performance. That's to wake up and insist on higher standards.

My goal is to make it so that the situation which we see at every election - the same candidates, the same faces... to turn the situation around and completely change it.

I love my children to death.