My mom was a Democrat and I was scared to death that she was gonna blow it. First I was going to hell with Monroe and now to Republican hell with Nixon.

I was born in Texas and I lived there 'till I was 8. Then I moved to the Dominican Republic with my mom lived there for two years and forgot every word of English I knew.

I grew up in a family of Republicans. And when I was 18 and registering to vote my mom's only instruction was 'You just go in and pull the big Republican lever.' That's my welcome to adulthood. She's like 'No don't even read it. Just pull the Republican lever.

The big divide in this country is not between Democrats and Republicans or women and men but between talkers and doers.

Medical liability reform is not a Republican or Democrat issue or even a doctor versus lawyer issue. It is a patient issue.

If Republicans want to be seen as more compassionate they should continue to stand proudly for the sanctify of life and marriage. And they should do so without apologizing.

In 1989 when I switched from Democrat to Republican with God as my witness not one thing changed about what I believed about one man and one woman in a marriage or about diversity of color. That's a good thing.

The Republican Party looks at massive immigration legal and illegal as a source of cheap labor satisfying a very important constituency.

The Republican majority will stop at nothing to prevent access to the legal system for those who are hurt.

Public office is supposed to be a public trust. This is a clear sign of the rampant corruption at the highest levels of the Republican leadership.

House Republican leadership have refused to allow a clean minimum wage vote. Close to 15 million Americans will be affected if we did this. Do Republicans really expect a family to live on less than $11 000 a year?

The truth is the Republican leadership has created a credit card Congress that is recklessly selling out the future of America our children and our grandchildren and President Bush is the most fiscally irresponsible President in the history of America.

This Congress is simply not doing its job under Republican leadership.

It is sad that the Republican leadership is not as interested as they say they are in protecting the institution of marriage as they are in waging a campaign to divide and distract the American people from the real issues that need to be addressed.

I think that if Republicans are given the reins of leadership in the House or Senate or both we will have to govern in a way - at least put forward solutions whether or not the president goes along with them or not that deal with these long-term challenges.

We need real leadership Democrat Republican and independent to stand up and say we have to live within our means.

There's a very big gulf between the black civil rights leadership in America and the black middle class in America. The black middle class are conservative. Many of those minorities can be persuaded to be members of the Republican Party.

Republican leadership in Congress let the energy companies write the energy bill that sent prices soaring and has turned a blind eye to the struggles of working families trying to make ends meet.

Year after year President Bush has broken his campaign promises on college aid. And year after year the Republican leadership in Congress has let him do it.

It is past time for Republican leadership to answer for record deficits and reckless spending both in Iraq and in the U.S. It's time for a plan to bring our troops home.

The House Republican leadership has simply run out of ideas.

The problem is is that President Bush and the Republican leadership in the Congress have resisted attempts to increase dramatically our fuel economy standards over the last five years.

There was no imminent threat. This was made up in Texas announced in January to the Republican leadership that war was going to take place and was going to be good politically. This whole thing was a fraud.

We've been sitting at the compromise table for a long time. We're just waiting for that cold chair to be warmed up by the Republican leadership. They still have time to do the right thing and be responsible. They just seem to be moving further and further away from it.