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Now, in an area that involves morality, I wouldn't care if I were the only person who had the position and my whole constituency was against me. I would still vote on a question of morality-my morality, not somebody else's morality.

Let me give you a basic issue. To me the survival of Israel is a question of morality, and so if everybody in my district -- and I've got them; I've got a lot of left people, new left, pro-Arab, insignificant in terms of the total number but militant, yelling, screaming. There's been a little shift to the better in my judgment, but if you look at the reform movement, like Bella Abzug for example, who now today is very supportive of Israel because she learned her lesson that if she were not, she would be defeated in her district, but she was against supporting Israel with American weapons. Jets for Israel was the big issue in ‘68 and ‘70, and she was opposed to it, and she shifted her position. I would never shift my position on an issue that I considered to be one of morality. You just can't change me on that.

Now, in an area where I believe I have expertise, then my position vis-a-vis my constituents is such that you'd have to convince me I'm wrong. If I've developed an expertise, and I get letters saying, “Listen, we don't like mass transit; we make highways,” this is something that I'm not going to listen to. I'm going to write them a letter and tell them my position. I'm always very honest and tell people whether I agree with them or disagree with them. I very rarely write a letter which many people write to the effect that: “I received your letter, and I certainly will take your letter into consideration” -- that