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I want to serve my country, but not necessarily in the political arena.

I'm not driven to get back into politics. It's not on my top five things to do before I die, but saying that, I may be in politics in the next year or the next ten years. I've been on the front line for 12 years, four in state government, eight on the national level.

I've been in a lot of elections.

I love serving in the U.S. House of Representatives, and I have especially enjoyed my time on the Ways and Means Committee.

I was considering running for political office.

Well, I've been in the political arena all of my life, and 10 years of that as a candidate and elected official, and that's about enough.

I had always thought about running for high political office, and I was kind of waiting for the stars to line up. And, you know, they don't hold the door open for you. You kind of have to muscle your way in.

After a great deal of thought and discussions with my family, I have decided not to seek re-election in 2014. Politics shouldn't be a career, and I never intended to make it one.

I haven't been in politics too long so that's a good thing.

I got to be White House chief of staff, ten years of congressman, secretary of defense, vice-president. If you're a political junkie like I obviously am - that was - every one of those was just a tremendous experience. I'm very comfortable with what I did and why I did it and how I did it. And I'll let others judge whether they liked it or not.