You have previously asserted the existence of negative trends in Congressional oversight. What are your current thoughts on trends in voting and Congressional cooperation with the executive?

I hope Congress becomes more assertive again and more independent, more willing to uphold the checks and balances that are required in a democracy like ours. When any administration, Republican or Democratic, acquires too much power and too much autonomy, we lose some of the democracy that this country needs in order to meet the standards and the expectations set out by our Founding Fathers. I would be very hopeful that Congress would be much more aggressive in its oversight and asserting its own positions than it has been in the past. Whether or not that happens is up to the members of Congress and especially the leadership.

Do you hope to become more internationally involved? There seems to be a trend of US elected officials turning outward. For example, former US Presidents Carter, Clinton, and Bush have been working on tsunami relief efforts.

I would like to spend more of my time working on foreign policy matters. I have been working with the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs and have chosen two areas of expertise as a Distinguished Senior Fellow with the Center for American Progress: healthcare and international policy. US Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton are two role models for me.

What effect, in your opinion, will globalization have on international relations?

It is increasing as a priority in our society today to be more engaged, more vocal, and more perceptive about international issues than we have been in the past. We are so interconnected that in a very short period of time there will be an intricate interrelationship beyond anything that my generation has ever seen. In large measure that is very healthy. I would hope we do not become too homogenized in that process. Our ethnic and cultural differences are wonderful but I believe that this newfound globalized appreciation of interdependence is something that requires far more thought and collective engagement than we have seen to date.

What does the US Democratic Party need to do to succeed in the mid-term elections in 2006?

The US Democratic Party needs to make clear to the American people that we have a clear-eyed view of the world and a plan to confront and defeat those who would do us harm. We can do so much more and so much better to defeat Al Qaeda, to restore our military, which is stretched to the breaking point, and to ensure that Iran and North Korea cannot hold the world captive to their nuclear ambitions.