Nobody in this administration talked about amnesty. It's always been a guest worker program.

Our committee has a lot of work to do before we truly think about implementing a guest worker program in this country. I say that because our Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents drive by day-labor centers knowing that illegal aliens loiter the street corner in search of illegal work — but do nothing. I don't know how we can reasonably create a system for 10 million illegal aliens when we cannot currently handle the workload on our desks.

We have been very skeptical of guest worker programs.

a thankless job. . . . Always a flak-catching job.

My advice to the tea party freshmen: Slow the galloping horses to a trot. Big government was built over decades; it can't be dismantled in a year, especially when Democrats control the White House.

If you allow those who are the most vocal and most antagonistic to get a meeting with the president for fear that publicity will hurt you if you don't, you're creating incentives for your critics to become even more antagonistic and more vocal. Then, you're forever stuck in: Will you or won't you meet? You'll no longer lead. You'll just wrestle with meetings.