I came very close to quitting my job for the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign. I seriously considered packing up my office and heading home to Colorado.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Serving my neighbors in Congress and fighting for them has been the best job I've ever had.
I was in the White House for a year and a half. Up to that point, all my jobs had been very unglamorous.
I've had to step up when I was Al Gore's campaign manager. I had to make significant changes as we moved from Washington, D.C. to Tennessee.
I worked at the White House in the early Reagan administration at a time when the deficit rocket really started to take off.
In 2006 it was a horrible election year, and, you know, I lost. But I lost because I continued to be a constant conservative, and the last six years I was someone who was a national figure in the sense that I was the third ranking Republican in leadership and I had just run President Bush's campaign in Pennsylvania.
I thought I could make a difference, so I ran for office.
After I retired, it was quite a long time before I went back to my department. I thought I was well out of it.
I was sent down to Cuba. Everything had been prepared with the help of Congressman Johnson and his staff.
I actually quit the business. I went and drove a truck for a year and a half.
I quit politics because I hated it.