People are desperate for help, for leadership. There's no place else to go but to me, they say, and the sad thing is that very often they are right. … - Bella Abzug

All I say is that anybody who thinks he can take me lightly because I'm fresh and colorful had better watch out. (p 49)

Perhaps the best way to change Congress to make it more representative, to make it more responsive-is to show people exactly what it is. This is the reason I've decided to keep this diary. I want people to share my personal experiences in struggling with the system. Having spent many years as the legislative director of Women Strike for Peace, I'm no innocent to Washington. I've already had a pretty good whiff of what to expect. The inside operation of Congress-the deals, the compromises, the selling out, the co-opting, the unprincipled manipulating, the self-serving career-building-is a story of such monumental decadence that I believe if people find out about

I felt if we are going to get anywhere, Congress has got to begin to reflect in its composition the great diversity of this country.