If it is only short-term money I think the budget can handle that.

He screwed up, and both [former Federal Emergency Management Agency Director] Michael Brown and [Homeland Security Secretary] Michael Chertoff really screwed up, so taxpayers are going to get the bill. Bush is overcompensating by promising the moon because his administration screwed up. Politics is driving policy.

The trip that we're taking . . . we're not holy rollers or anything. I'm not on a mission. I just feel like we have unfinished business to help out the people down here who helped us, whether they was there helping or just here praying for us.

I didn't even realize I was doing it. I knew everything was going well and we were moving up and down the field.

There was a growing undercurrent of discontent by fiscal conservatives kept under wraps because Bush delivered four tax cuts in four years. It had been a unifying theme. That is over now because of the gigantic deficits.

People still come up to us and give us hugs and say, `sorry,' four years later, ... When you come down here and see the devastation, it brings back bad memories.

What we had in 16 acres, ... they have in three counties.

The federal government doesn't have the money. The rebuilding money should come from state and local budgets. States should issue bonds for long-term investments for freeways and the like. ... They should look at innovative private financing mechanisms.