Money has too big an influence on our politics in Washington and somehow we need to do something about that.

In Washington DC politics dominate even the most casual conversations.

No matter where I go - London Beirut Jerusalem Washington Beijing or Bangalore - I'm always looking to rediscover that land of ten thousand lakes where politics actually worked to make people's lives better not pull them apart.

If you don't like the President it costs you 90 bucks to fly to Washington to picket. If you don't like the Governor it costs you 60 bucks to fly to Albany to picket. If you don't like me 90 cents.

You want a friend in Washington? Get a dog.

Movies such as 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington' in 1939 to 'Dave' in 1993 portray Washington leaders as the ultimate Everymen - decent people just like you and me only thrust onto greatness.

In a few days an officer came to our camp under a flag of truce and informed Hamilton then a captain of artillery but afterwards the aid of General Washington that Captain Hale had been arrested within the British lines condemned as a spy and executed that morning.

It's not like I just have to go to Washington and go to the White House everyday and go to the same press conference at 10 in the morning and then be briefed at 4 in the afternoon and then get a story on at 6.

This morning in the Washington Post there was a statistic about how 85% of Americans are Christians.

I was in Washington D.C. on the morning show by the time I was 18 programming a station by 19 No. 1 in the mornings. I think I was making I don't know a quarter of a million dollars by the time I was 25.

The GAO just released a report that said 22 percent of federal programs fail to meet their objectives. The truth is we don't know how taxpayer money is spent in Washington D.C. which is why I think we ought to put every agency budget up on the Internet for everyone to see.

That's the real secret to job creation - not borrowing and spending more money in Washington.

I call crony capitalism where you take money from successful small businesses spend it in Washington on favored industries on favored individuals picking winners and losers in the economy that's not pro-growth economics. That's not entrepreneurial economics. That's not helping small businesses. That's cronyism that's corporate welfare.

I can't remember a time when my mom didn't work. She has forever been on the move: a go-getter. When my brother Adel and I had a paper route as kids my mom would get up before us at the crack of dawn to drop off the Washington Post at different corners.

Washington has got to across the board lower taxes for small businesses so that our mom and pops can reinvest and hire people so that our businesses can thrive.

The Supreme Court has ruled that they cannot have a nativity scene in Washington D.C. This wasn't for any religious reasons. They couldn't find three wise men and a virgin.

So I applied to medical school and received a scholarship at Washington University in St. Louis. Washington University turned out to be a lucky choice. The faculty was scholarly and dedicated and accessible to students.

Things happened there that I don't think are the finest hours for anybody whether it was a journalist the legal system or in that case of the political system who would say that was an example of when Washington worked best.

I think people should look at learning about Native American history the same as visiting Washington D.C. and seeing the monuments there. It's all part of the package.

Twenty-eight years in business and you understand the importance of problem solving and the importance of efficiency because if you don't become efficient you don't run a business well and you are out of business. And I think some of those principles could be applied to leadership in Washington.

There's a void of leadership in a lot of Washington. I think one of the reasons why there's so much angst across the country.

It doesn't matter that Bush scares the hell out of me. What matters is that he scares the hell out of a lot of very important people in Washington who can't speak out in the military in the intelligence community.

There is something uniquely depressing about the fact that the National Portrait Gallery's version of the Barack Obama 'Hope' poster previously belonged to a pair of lobbyists. Depressing because Mr. Obama's Washington was not supposed to be the lobbyists' Washington the place we learned to despise during the last administration.

There are a number of things wrong with Washington. One of them is that everyone is too far from home.