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very unusual relationship. If you ask- the other members of the delegation, they will tell you: it's extraordinary. And it is as a result of my being able to work with him -- and I assist him in the running of the meeting, you know. I make sure that he recognizes people, give him the names, I do all of the secretarial work. That is to say, I respond to all of the correspondence that he gets that relates to the delegation. I set up the luncheons. If it takes having a good luncheon to have these guys come -- and it does -- I make sure the luncheon is a good luncheon. And the delegation is so successful (this was all New York City and the four or five Democrats from Long Island and upstate ... was the Democratic delegation) that Peter Peyser, who is a liberal Republican and who I have become very good friends with over the years, said, “Why can't we have a bi-partisan delegation? Why can't we meet as a delegation as California does?” And I said, “That's a terrific idea.” And I took it up with the other members, and ultimately what we did was: we set aside one of the two meetings a month that we used to have totally only for Democrats -- we now have for bipartisan work. So the second Wednesday of the month is the Democratic caucus delegation, and the fourth Wednesday of the month is the bi-partisan caucus delegation.

I've got it down to science now. Whereas before we used to have to get the names of everybody to sign a letter if we wanted a delegation letter, what we do now is: if there is a