Angus King

I'm old enough to remember Richard Nixon. They called it the imperial presidency when he was refusing to spend money that Congress had appropriated.

Somebody said, 'You may be a committee chair.' I don't think so. I don't think anybody would want me that much.

I worked in the Senate in the 1970s. I worked for the Labor, Public Welfare Committee, and we had Ted Kennedy and my old boss, Bill Hathaway, and Walter Mondale.

My view of the filibuster is either you've got to lower vote edge or make people really filibuster if they feel that seriously about a piece of legislation.

It's hard running as an independent. I wouldn't have won the Senate election if I hadn't been governor. I had credibility. The hard part is getting voters to the point where they think it's thinkable and not a waste of time.

How can you work with someone if you went into their state to campaign against them?

One of my life principles is that if something isn't working, doing something harder isn't necessarily going to produce the same result.

I have a Twitter account; I have a fantastic Facebook page.

My desire is to be as independent as I can be, as long as I can be, subject to being effective.

I've come to realize that an unencumbered U.S. senator is a profound threat to the whole system. It's somebody that they can't put in a box and say, 'Oh, well, we know how this guy is going to vote.'

I think that people have to reward those individuals who are prepared to work across the political aisle. I don't see any other way; if you don't talk to people with whom you disagree, you're never going to solve problems.

If it's necessary to join a caucus and get a committee assignment, I'll do it.

I had no intention of getting back into politics. I was teaching at Bowdoin and happily retired from politics.