Old Fogey's Quotes for Saturday

"Katrina was not just a break in the levee of the great Crescent City, but it was a break in the levee of political goodwill and the Teflon coating that the administration had been enjoying up to then."
Rep. Jack Kingston (Ga.), a member of the House Republican leadership
Katrina's Damage Lingers For Bush
[Hooray for Television! It's hard to maintain your credibility when what people are seeing doesn't begin to match what you are saying]

"Correspondents have a job in war as essential as the military personnel. Fundamentally, public opinion wins wars."
Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower in a memorandum drafted in the worrisome days before the Normandy invasion
The Power Joe Rosenthal Knew
[Correspondents can also help stop money and men from being poured down a rat hole]

"If you're not electing Christians, then in essence you are going to legislate sin."
Rep. Katherine Harris (R-Fla.)
Rep. Harris Condemns Separation of Church, State
[As someone who proudly accepts both the labels 'liberal' and 'Christian,' this lady makes me prouder to be a liberal, and a little embarassed to be a Christian]

"If a senator from the United States and his wife can get tested, then everyone in this crowd, in this town and in this province can get tested."
U.S. Senator Barack Obama, after taking an AIDS test in Kenya with his wife Michelle to encourage Kenyans to get tested
Throngs greet Senator Obama in Kenya
[Wouldn't it be nice to have someone who is respected abroad as our sitting president?]

“When we met with the search committee in Louisville, people on it said to me, ‘We really didn’t want a woman, because we know that we’re dying when we get a woman.’”
Rev. Lucia Oerter, reflecting mainline Protestant churches propensity to send woman pastors to failing churches rather than large successful ones
Clergywomen Find Hard Path to Bigger Pulpit
[How can the ceiling be stained glass? Another case of cherry-picking biblical verses to sustain cultural prejudice in a church whose founder made it his business to upset the status quo]

“We must take what we have learned and fashion a realistic set of recommendations that will give more New Yorkers a chance to lift themselves out of poverty.”
Memo from the leaders of the Commission on Economic Opportunity
To Cut Poverty, Panel Advises a Narrow Focus
[This seems a little Orwellian, coming from a group proposing to limit aid to fewer people]

“Our country can’t afford to let Nancy Pelosi, John Murtha and Barney Frank reverse the progress we’ve made.”
Republican Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois in a recent appeal for contributions
Issues Await if Democrats Retake House
[Just what progress are you referring to? Would it be getting us bogged down in a senseless war? Increasing the numbers of people living in poverty? Running up huge deficits? As far as I can see the only people who have progressed are the business interests you represent]

“After you hire Brownie, you might want to hire Typhoid Mary to help you avoid infectious diseases.”
St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial, referring to Michael D. Brown, the disgraced former director of FEMA
A Punch Line Who Refuses to Fade Away
[I thought Typhoid Mary already had a job at the FDA]