“I think in politics, in Congress, you often do things that are Republican, or you do things because you're a Democrat. Sometimes that's good, obviously, and sometimes that's obviously bad. But in the news business, there's no such thing as Republican or Democratic news. News is news.”
“In addition, there is one title I cherish a great deal more than Congressman and that is the title of... Dad.”
“I think that anybody that stays in school, gets good grades, pays the price, I think we are wealthy enough in the public and the private sector in America to make sure that every child in America that wants to continue their education, they should be able to do that.”
“The measure of a man is not how great his faith is, but how great his love is. We must not let government programs disconnect our souls from each other.”
“Individual responsibility, hard work, paying attention in school, faith, family all these things are important.”
“I think you grow wherever God plants you. I hope I'm growing as a person of faith, as a Christian. That should be our number one objective this journey of life. That all starts with a personal intimate relationship with Christ and then being in prayer every single day about all of those things - being tenacious about it.”
“Everything I am I owe to my faith and secondly to parents who were old school.”
“Republicans and Democrats have used accounting gimmicks and competing government analyses to deceive the public into believing that 2 + 2 = 6. If our leaders cannot agree on the numbers, if 'facts' are fictional, how can they possibly have a substantive debate on solutions?”
“I'm not driven to get back into politics. It's not on my top five things to do before I die, but saying that, I may be in politics in the next year or the next ten years. I've been on the front line for 12 years, four in state government, eight on the national level.”
“Some might think that George W. Bush had his shortcomings, but let me tell you something - history's going to be kind to George W. Bush.”
“My work in the House of Representatives, at this time in my life, is completed. It is time to return home.”
“In my wildest imagination, I never thought that the fifth of six children born to Helen and Buddy Watts - in a poor black neighborhood, in the poor rural community of Eufaula, Oklahoma - would someday be called Congressman.”
“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.”
“I'm looking forward to the day when America will mature to the point that we are a color-blind society. I'm not so sure that in politics that will ever be reality, because politics has a way of separating us based on skin color.”
“Good policy makes good politics and what I've done has been good politics.”
“I never got into politics for it to be a career.”
“I never got into politics for it to be a career. It doesn't take a lot of strength to hang on. It takes a lot of strength to let go.”
“I guess probably in my time in politics, it continued to be affirmed to me that the African-American community, despite being subscription television's most valuable customers, they are very underserved by cable and satellite television programming options.”
“We need to remember that politics is all about people, not programs. We shouldn't want to take the humanness out of the political arena.”
“The establishment wonders why we can't get more of the black vote. It's because it's not doing the things necessary to establish a deeper relationship with the black community. Most black people don't think alike. Most black people just vote alike.”
“I am willing to compete on my merits and on my character - not with the color of my skin. We talk about being a color-blind society, but I don't think the political process could actually handle that.”
“There's a whole lot more to the African-American community than entertainment and sports.”
“I would love to be associated with some sports organization. I was a journalism major. That's kind of intriguing, to do something in the political-commentary arena.”
“It doesn't take a lot of strength to hang on. It takes a lot of strength to let go.”
“The strength of America is not in Washington.”
“I have often said one of the reasons more blacks don't support Republicans is because they don't trust the GOP establishment.”