"I won in a primary, so I understand primary fights."

"Power is getting things done without having to demonstrate that you can bulldoze it through. I'm most effective when I've studied an issue, when I can make a credible argument, and then bring people along."

"I was eleventh-grade class president. That was the first elective office I held until I came into Congress."

"I go to church too, y'all. And I've heard it, too. And I want to say to all of our faith leaders out there that I understand that probably in my Baptist church in Maryland, it is not likely that there will be performed - in my church - gay marriages."

"You may be right that people say: 'You know what, we had Obama. He was inexperienced. The guy had great rhetoric, sounded good, looked good, but has turned out to be an utter disaster. I want someone where I have confidence and credibility that they're up to the job and that I can trust what they tell me.'"

"I've spent so many years talking about poverty and economic justice, I'm strongly tempted to get biblical. Jesus' teachings are so radical; they're just insanely generous and apocalyptic. Christians become more fascinated by the dead Jesus. They don't like the living Jesus."

"Lennon was right. And we are bigger than Jesus. We will be as big as the Beatles, if not bigger."

"You shall judge of a man by his foes as well as by his friends."