Mr. Chair, I would sort of characterize that my mission is to serve the veterans. My staff will have the same selfless dedication that I will. The “buddy” is the veteran. So the mission is to ensure that we are pursuing fair treatment for all of our veterans in terms of the delivery of the services they should be entitled to. I am the champion of their rights and interests, in the pursuit of fair treatment for our veterans. I put the interests of the veterans ahead of the interests of myself or my staff. Then, finally, the third is worrying about whether or not I get an extension to this job. That's well down the list.
On November 29th, 2007. See this statement in context.