Most federal employees perform their tasks honorably and well.

I think a flat tax has merit. Anything would be better than the current tax code.

Jim Crow laws stripped blacks of basic rights. Despite landmark civil rights laws, many public schools were still segregated, blacks still faced barriers to voting, and violence by white racists continued. Such open racism is mostly gone in America, but covert racism is alive and well.

When a black man is stopped by a cop for no apparent reason, that is covert racism. When a black woman shops in a fancy store and is followed by security guards, that is covert racism. It is more subtle than 1960s racism, but it is still racism.

I salute South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and Sen. Lindsey Graham for their calls to remove the Confederate battle flag from the grounds of the Statehouse.

When I worked in the White House in the 1970s and '80s, I was often stopped within the White House by agents checking my credentials. They were very observant and would stop anyone they didn't recognize.

Disney World is exactly the wrong description of how the Secret Service should operate in public. Their jobs are not about pleasing adults and children, but rather protecting the president and the first family.

The vast majority of Secret Service agents are incredibly competent people.

Ideological purity does not now, nor has it ever, produced results.

Very few undocumented workers come here to be unemployed.

There is no doubt that terrorists acting under the banner of Islam have declared war on us.

I don't have a problem with stepped-up surveillance as long as we follow the rule of law.

We need to gather intelligence, but we need to do so legally.

If we have intelligence on the location of terrorist training centers, it is insane not to act.

High-quality health care is not available to millions of Americans who don't have health insurance, or whose substandard plans provide minimum coverage. That's why the Affordable Care Act is so important. It provides quality health insurance to both the uninsured and underinsured.

Republicans want to use Obamacare in the 2014 elections against Democrats who voted for it. They want to see it fail, even at the expense of people's health.

A few states have taken redistricting out of the hands of partisans and put them in the hands of fair-minded committees. Every state should do the same.

It should be mandatory that any tax breaks go through appropriate committees and be voted on separately by both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

The U.S. military cannot fight Iraq's war for them.

Like many other Americans, I'm tired of the U.S. taxpayer paying for foreign wars, especially when the countries we defend have raked in huge oil profits.

Our first priority should be to protect the homeland. If we don't, a future generation might ask, 'Who lost America?'

The decision in McCutcheon v. FEC is a devastating blow in efforts to rein in out-of-control costs of campaigns.

I strongly favor shortening the campaign season and putting more primaries and caucuses on the same day, preferably regionally.

An early attempt at education choice was charter schools. These were meant to attract the best and brightest students and provide them a level of education they often could not find in their local school districts. The problem is that, of the thousands of charter schools, many are outright failures.

Schools alone are not to blame for underachievement. The breakdown of the family, poverty, and decaying cities with eroding tax bases have made a good public school education nearly impossible in many parts of the country.

I have long been an advocate of school choice, but I also believe the problem lies with school administrators and union leaders who refuse to believe there is such a thing as a bad school.

Charter schools are not a panacea.

I worked in a chicken factory, in a steel foundry, I worked on the bins for a year or so. It started as a summer job, but I stayed on because I liked it very much. I liked it that it made you very fit, doing all the lifting and that, so I could wear short-sleeved t-shirts, which I'd never been able to do before!

When I was about 13, I went to see this band called Free, who I'd never heard, and I just fell in love with them. I found my heroes. I stood at the front with my chin on the stage.

My shyness probably defined the first 30 years of my life, really. It's a crippling thing. It can be very lonely knowing that you've got things to say, but you daren't say them.

I played for Middlesbrough's youth team. At the age of 16, I went into a shed at the training ground and was told that they weren't signing me on, so that was the end of that dream. Football was my life. I played football when I got to school, football every break and football as soon as I got home.

I've started to get iritis, which affects the eyes. But I'm not going to give in.

Other people just look so comfortable with a book in their hands - I never feel like that.

I hate dinner parties, you know, can't stand them. Friends don't bother inviting me any more, because they know I won't come. I could never think of anything to say between courses - it's a confidence thing, I suppose.

I love 'Big Brother.' I adore it. What can I say. It just suits me fine.

I like having something I can watch every single night. It suits my habits.

I saw Alan Davies on a show from the London Palladium and he did a nice routine about having kids or whatever. I couldn't do that.

I want people to watch us and think, 'They're idiots. They're clowns,' I want them to watch us and think Tommy Cooper or Spike Milligan.

There are a lot of famous people who started out with us and became stars and I wouldn't swap my life with theirs for one second.

I get tempted to do a reality show because I enjoy them so much.

We miss 'House of Fools' a lot. We always enjoyed doing that; it felt a bit like a different and fresh show for British TV, so we always feel attached to those sort of things.

We've always been a slightly specialist interest, and as you get older, for specialist interest programmes I think broadcasters are probably looking for younger talent, really.

I think 'the Mighty Boosh' are quite good.

I hate every moment of live performance.

We miss 'House of Fools' a lot. It felt a bit like a different and fresh show for British TV.

It's like cooks don't watch cooking programmes - I suppose maybe comedians don't watch comedy shows.

When we first did 'Big Night Out,' there was no chance of someone doing a little show in a pub then being on telly. There was a little Oxbridge route in and an old-fashioned variety route.

I'm not that interested in other people, and I don't have any friends, so I'm not really the ideal candidate for Twitter.

Darts is bad.

Funnily enough, 'Shooting Stars,' that stupid little panel show, is the most influential thing we've done.