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Well, before you added your changed position, I was going to put a question in a little different way, and I'll do it anyway, although it's going to sound a little loaded to you. But the way you characterized Carmine's attitude toward the role of district leader and yours in this initial phase, I drew the inference that Carmine was putting himself in sort of an authoritarian stance.

That's true. You've stated it quite correctly. And I'm not suggesting that a modern district leader, reform or otherwise, would take that position of the feudal lord. Carmine's position vis-a-vis his community was that of the feudal lord. You came up to his club, and he was treated like a god. That's not what I'm talking about. What I'm simply saying is that so many of the district leaders today in the reform movement have no ability to take an independent position or to speak out, to differ from their club. They feel subservient to it, and I do not have that relationship. I believe it has to be considered and you should be very careful about doing things that are at varience with your political supporters -- in this case a political club -- but it should not inhibit you from doing what you think is correct. And I found it has not hurt me to do what I thought was correct.

In other words, originally you sow the district leader in a role rather analogous to say an instructed ambassador, an instructed leader of the club.