And when we draw lines in the sand with regard to certain basic things that are vital to our interest and to the interest of democracy and our friends around the world, we have to be willing to back that up.

For example, lead paint in old houses can be a greater threat to children's health than lead that may be under some industrial site where there are no children.

Let's not overlook, though, what we do know about the campaign finance scandal, and the fact the Chinese were involved in our presidential campaign and our congressional campaigns.

In the end, we may be hurting the very people we should be concerned about - the inner-city poor, those who already have to live with many risks in their daily lives, those who do not have clout here in Washington.

I think that there is a relatively small number of people who are pushing for independence in Taiwan.

I think that the justices were totally answering the way that they should. I think that the senators, as best I could tell, for the most part, Democrat and Republican, respected that.

And I believe in the 13 years Judge Roberts was there, he never turned down a request to give some assistance on a pro-bono case, and this was no different.

Nobody wants to open a business near a Superfund site and risk being sued.

And it's difficult for the average American to understand why something like that could be so important and why a little small place like Taiwan would be so important to the PRC.

For a long time in American history, people didn't even come up before the Senate. They didn't come before the Judiciary Committee, and up until about 1923, something like that.

Clearly, the Chinese know that we want a good relationship with them.

China is one of the world's greatest proliferators of weapons of mass destruction to these rogue nations.

We also have to ask if we focusing on the most important priorities.

So China will be having to make some choices as to whose side it wants to be on. Hopefully, this will be the beginning of a major improvement in our relationship with them, if they choose correctly.

But obviously, we can't afford to make some bad long-term decisions with regard to basic commitments our country has - trade those away for some short-term assistance that may or may not be there a month from now.