Old Fogey's Sunday Quotes

"Do I think they care about it? No, I don't."
Rep. John T. Doolittle (R-Calif.) regarding the public’s view of congressional ethics legislation
Polls Suggest Ethics Issues Could Haunt GOP in WaPo

"But you're not going to lose a senator. You're going to gain a Democrat."
Ned Lamont on his primary challenge of Joe Lieberman
Tough Primary Race Confronts Lieberman in WaPo

"That's what earmarks can do -- break through the inertia. If this didn't have urinal in the title, no one would make a fuss."
Rep. Vernon Ehlers (R-Mich.) regarding his appropriations earmark for the Waterfree Urinal Conservation Initiative
A Bridge Still Going Nowhere in WaPo

"Americans may fight evil, they argued, but that does not make us inherently good. And paradoxically, that very recognition makes national greatness possible. Knowing that we, too, can be corrupted by power, we seek the constraints that empires refuse. And knowing that democracy is something we pursue rather than something we embody, we advance it not merely by exhorting others but by battling the evil in ourselves. The irony of American exceptionalism is that by acknowledging our common fallibility, we inspire the world."
Peter Beinart, editor at large of The New Republic. This essay is adapted from "The Good Fight: Why Liberals —— and Only Liberals —— Can Win the War on Terror and Make America Great Again," which will be published in late May by HarperCollins.
The Rehabilitation of the Cold-War Liberal in NYT

"I said to every challenger, between now and March 31, besides having X dollars cash on hands, they have to have three proactive policy things that they have announced. I want to see clips. Otherwise you're not part of my red-to-blue program, O.K.?"
Representative Rahm Emanuel (D-Chicago)
Democratic Hard Chargers Try to Return Party to Power in NYT

"Science is just being put into the meat grinder and is being politicized."
Dr. Eve Slater, former assistant secretary for health in Bush's first term
At Leaderless FDA, Problems Pile Up in LATimes