Verbatim

These people could be anybody. I wouldn’t put it past the Democrats to plant somebody there. They’re trying to label the tea party, but I’ve never seen any racial slurs.

— Dale Robertson, self-proclaimed founder of the Tea Party, quoted by the Washington Times. The only problem? The Washington Independent caught Robertson at a Tea Party rally last month holding a sign with a racial slur.

Verbatim

My theory of why no one in politics likes to think about political science: because it renders them powerless. How do you do your job as a political consultant when the truth is that 90 percent of the success or failure of what you do will be determined by the unemployment rate? … The point is, we need to believe we’re in control. Political science tells everyone in politics the opposite: You’re not in control. The economy rules your fate — the rest is just pissing in the wind.

— Ryan Sager, author of “The Elephant in the Room: Evangelicals, Libertarians, and the Battle to Control the Republican Party.”

Verbatim

The ace we have in our pocket is the Republican party. The Republicans have concluded that their success lies in our failure. The American people are smart. They smell a rat. They know there was nothing about trying to get a better bill.

— Vice President Joe Biden, quoted by Fox News, on the administration’s health care victory.

Verbatim

Perhaps they felt like they had killed health care reform … They thought the fight was over. And that the president couldn’t now succeed. I do believe that. And it is almost as if they had made the statement that they thought they had stopped the thing. And so it created a breathing space for us to regroup.

— White House adviser David Axelrod, quoted by the Huffington Post, on Republicans letting down their guard after winning the Massachusetts Senate special election in January.

Verbatim

The art of taking money from the few and votes from the many under the pretext of protecting the one from the other.

— Sen. Matthew Quay (R-PA), giving his definition of politics, quoted in Realigning America: McKinley, Bryan, and the Remarkable Election of 1896, by R. Hal Williams. Quay was a powerful Republican party boss in Pennsylvania from 1887 until his death in 1904.

Verbatim

This is a big f*cking deal.

— Vice President Joe Biden, congratulating President Obama at the health care reform signing ceremony. Later, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs tweeted, “And yes, Mr. Vice President, you’re right …”

Verbatim

America has just witnessed an unconscionable abuse of power. President Obama has betrayed his oath to the nation — rather than bringing us together, ushering in a new kind of politics, and rising above raw partisanship, he has succumbed to the lowest denominator of incumbent power: justifying the means by extolling the ends.

— Mitt Romney, writing for the National Review and his handful of political supporters.