I know what I am in Washington to do: I'm here to fight for hardworking families.
From my apartment in Arlington, I could see Washington. It was always nice to be near home.
For many Native Americans across the land, the name of the Washington football team is a deeply personal reminder of a legacy of racism and generations of pain.
I was a brand new senator in 2013. And the idiocy of Congress was to shut the government down for two weeks in October. And coming out of that, the pressure was put on the budget chair, Paul Ryan's shoulders and Patty Murray. Conservative Wisconsin Republican, progressive Washington Democrat, come up with a budget deal.
The people in Washington are getting rich with our money. Under President Barack Obama, the federal government swelled to record size, and it took more and more of our money to pay for it. Who benefitted? Not Missouri farmers or workers.
As for my support for Obama, remember that I was brought up in Washington. It was an all-black city when I was a kid. And I've always been very pro-African-American - or whatever phrase we now use.
What's the difference in opening from scratch in Philly or opening from scratch in New York? The old out-of-town tryout circuit - taking the show pre-Broadway to cities like Boston, New Haven, Philadelphia, Washington - has sort of been replaced with the amount of workshops we do.
I understand the politics of Washington, D.C. You need to hold firm, you need to work with your colleagues, and you need to throw elbows.
New Jersey residents deserve to have their tax dollars spent on transportation and infrastructure projects right here in the Garden State instead of being wasted in Washington.
I've been a political junkie for a long time. I find the way Washington works is just fascinating to me.
I was with - he wasn't the president then, but - Barack Obama, when he was running, in Washington, during Black Congressional Caucus Weekend, and did a panel about global warming with him. It was almost as if I switched careers for a while, and became a political activist.
The working class who toil everyday to pay their rent and put food on their families' tables are tired of being lectured by the fat cats in Washington and Brussels who preach what we need and when we need it.
I shook Obama's hand and I said, 'I want to be your friend.' My hand is still outstretched. I am not Obama's enemy, but it's difficult not see imperialism in Washington. Those who don't see it don't want to see it, like the ostrich.
I think too many of the politicians in Washington have forgotten simple ideals like solving problems and helping neighbors. The Washington game is more about scoring points or sticking it to the other guy.
Trump could teach Republicans in Washington a lot if only they stopped posturing long enough to watch carefully.
The United States government in Washington constantly gives amnesty to its highest officials, even when they commit the most egregious crimes. And yet the idea of amnesty for a whistleblower is considered radical and extreme.
The Republicans I know or the conservatives I know, they disagree with what the Republicans are doing in Washington because we are compromising too much.
The Washington Redskin fan base represents honor, represents respect, represents pride.
When it comes to the environment in our own backyard, we understand it far better than anybody in Washington D.C.
Certainly, Occupy Wall Street protesters have different ideas about the movement's mission. Many of the marchers I met even disagreed on the purpose of their trek - some thought it was about getting to Washington to protest the 'supercommittee'; others thought it was about visiting other Occupations.
There's a Washington standard of casually putting things off the record. It's really gone too far. I don't know an easy way to turn it back.
To me, the success of the cyberactivists in Tunisia is actually very interesting, because many of them explicitly rejected any support from Washington.
My dad had the greatest admiration for MacArthur when they were working together in Washington before the Philippines. And Dad used to talk with absolute awe about MacArthur's brain.
The Obama administration's zeal to not 'waste a good crisis,' as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton put it, has been stunning even for Washington insiders to behold.
I was at the 1976 Republican Convention in Kansas City. I was running 'Nobody for President' at the time. I printed up these press releases and handed them out to the crowd at the Kemper Arena. 'Nobody keeps campaign promises.' 'Nobody lowers your taxes.' 'Nobody should have that much power.' 'Nobody is in Washington working for you.'
When you live in Washington, D.C., you do get a sense, in a very direct way, of the durability of our government and really, the greatness of the American system.
Halloween is bigger than Christmas in America. I've experienced it in New York, Los Angeles and Washington D.C., and if you're in the right neighbourhood, every house is decorated with spooky ghosts, spider webs, and jack-o-lanterns.
In my view, far from deserving condemnation for their courageous reporting, the New York Times, the Washington Post and other newspapers should be commended for serving the purpose that the Founding Fathers saw so clearly.
When the rule of law is being perverted to the rule of the 'good intentions' of unelected judges, it is time for serious study of Thomas Paine and Sam Adams as much as Washington and Madison.
I always liked Nat King Cole. I always wanted to go my own way, but I always favoured other singers like Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughn, Ella Fitzgerald - I loved Ella Fitzgerald. There are so many of them. Nina Simone was one of my favourites - Johnny Mathis.
I don't think we've asked the right questions, the tough questions, at the right time, in Washington.
Washington has incentivized the militarization of local police precincts by using federal dollars to help municipal governments build what are essentially small armies - where police departments compete to acquire military gear that goes far beyond what most of Americans think of as law enforcement.
Of course, the genesis of a good portion of the gridlock in Congress does not reside in Congress itself. Ultimate reform will require each of us, as voters and Americans, to take a long look in the mirror, because in many ways, our representatives in Washington reflect the people who have sent them there.
The American tradition of Washington and Hamilton and Madison and Lincoln and TR and Pat Buchanan is of economic nationalism - making America an independent, self-sufficient, sovereign forever country that's able to stand on its own feet.
There are some days when history is made. Yesterday was one - and I was honoured to be in Washington to watch Barack Obama being sworn in. During his soaring inaugural address, the new president gazed over a teeming National Mall that was crowded with more than a million people.
Money has too big an influence on our politics in Washington and somehow we need to do something about that.
