“In my state [ Maryland] we’ve lost jobs to NAFTA, we did not gain jobs from NAFTA. But I think it’s very difficult when your state is right up against the northern border, you do see things differently.”

There were times, though, when the women came together on a partisan basis. [When we stopped] the privatization of Social Security during George Bush, we linked arms.

I truly believe that before I retire from public office, I’ll be voting for a woman for president.

You cant get more for less. You get what you pay for.

I’m so proud of Maryland’s firefighters, risking their lives to protect others, but we need to protect our protectors with the best equipment training and resources.

George Mitchell was a very good leader, and we were more than satisfied with his leadership. And I know the guys were jealous.

Family responsibility, yes, and always. Family bankruptcy due to the cruel rules of government, no.

His great passion for education and [making sure] people have an opportunity. Of course that’s what came out of the George Mitchell Institute and his scholarships in those high schools.

I think Paul Sarbanes and his wife Christine socialized with them [George and Heather Mitchell] more than I did, but we all hung out, or we saw each other in groups.

On the most recent battles on health insurance reform, the women led the battle to end gender discrimination by the insurance companies [where] women paid more and got less of a benefit, and also the whole issue of prevention.

Senator [George] Mitchell is a man of many talents and he’s swift on his feet, but one would not think of him as ‘dancing with the stars.’ And we had this great rock ‘n’ roll fund raiser.

I thought in this country, the best social program was a job. Yet minimum wage jobs arent paying enough to keep families out of poverty

Our seniors’ retirement should never rely on the bull of political promises or the bear of the market.

I would say that in some ways George Mitchell is kind of an old fashioned guy, in terms of these basic values, but he was a very modern person, encouraging, he was not only accepting but he was actually encouraging.

Every vote counts and every vote must be counted

I knew of Senator [George] Mitchell because he was very close friends with who was soon to be the senior senator, Paul Sarbanes. Paul Sarbanes and George Mitchell were kind of pals together.

George [Mitchell] introduced the idea that we’d go on a retreat [and] to really regularize caucuses. He’s the one who had I think [Tom] Daschle become the Democratic Policy Committee chairman, so I think it lived through with Tom.

I am very familiar with Hungary, because I grew up in Romania, which borders it.

On the border area with Lebanon where [Hezbollah forces] want to protect themselves and cooperate with us, but they don’t exist all over Syria.

One feels a quickening of the pulse when one crosses a border.

Hezbollah fighters are on the borders with Lebanon where the terrorists attacked them. On the borders with Lebanon, this is where Hezbollah retaliated, and this is where we have cooperation, and that’s good.

[Hezbollah forces] cannot exist all over Syria anyway, for many reasons, but they exist on the borders.

Thank God we’re going to try to continue and effectively defend our frontiers with the Border Patrol, with the Customs Department, with the Coast Guard, with the Armed Forces.

Since problems spill across borders, security anywhere depends on sustainable development everywhere.

Poetry feels like a country I visit without a passport, where I look around furtively, grab hold of something precious, and try to smuggle it back across the border. Any poem I get written down feels like contraband to me.