I've always tried to vote my conscience.

The opposition tried to de-legitimize the vote.

The bailout of Fannie Mae is completely off the books. It's going to cost us hundreds of billions of dollars. Yet nobody is placing this in any type of column in accounting for federal debt.

Sometimes, people forget my record of fiscal conservatism on major issues in the state legislature. The greatest example is my voting against the pension borrowing scheme in 1997.

I agree with that. I've always supported a property-tax convention, as long as it includes a look at spending. ... We can't continue to raise taxes to cover spending increases.

I don't believe there is Republican support to increase taxes.