Verbatim

He knows that I don’t play politics … and I certainly don’t play it with national security and neither does anyone else I know. The lives of our young men and women are on the line. The strategy does not belong to any political party and I can assure you that the President of the United States is not playing to any political base. And I take exception to that remark.

— National Security Adviser Jim Jones, in an interview on CNN, responding to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) who said last week that the Obama administration doesn’t “want to alienate the left base of the Democrat [sic] Party.”

Verbatim

Most politicians of prominence write a book. My honest view is that she would not be a winning candidate for president and if she was the results would be … catastrophic. It’s fairly inconceivable she could be elected.

— Former McCain campaign manager Steve Schmidt, on Sarah Palin’s electoral prospects in 2012 at The Atlantic ‘s First Draft of History conference.

Verbatim

I have no problem with any of the substantive criticism of President Obama from the right or left. But something very dangerous is happening. Criticism from the far right has begun tipping over into delegitimation and creating the same kind of climate here that existed in Israel on the eve of the Rabin assassination … Even if you are not worried that someone might draw from these vitriolic attacks a license to try to hurt the president, you have to be worried about what is happening to American politics more broadly.

— Thomas Friedman, NY Times columnist and Pulitzer Prize–winning author.

Verbatim

Every once in a while I feel despair over the fate of the planet. If you’ve been following climate science, you know what I mean: the sense that we’re hurtling toward catastrophe but nobody wants to hear about it or do anything to avert it…. And here’s the thing: I’m not engaging in hyperbole. These days, dire warnings aren’t the delusional raving of cranks. They’re what come out of the most widely respected climate models, devised by the leading researchers. The prognosis for the planet has gotten much, much worse in just the last few years.

— Paul Krugman, New York Times columnist and Nobel Laureate.

Verbatim

He’s very analytical. He’s very deliberate about the way he goes through things. He wants to understand everything. He delves very deeply into these issues. I’m not going to get into comparing the different presidents. I very much enjoy working for this one.

— Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, in an interview on CNN , on what it’s like working with President Obama.

Verbatim

The lowest circles of hell are for people who are disloyal in the way this guy is disloyal, and at the very lowest point Satan chews on their bodies. Maybe Scott McClellan will chew on this guy’s leg in the afterlife. So creepy and so disgusting.

— Bill Bennett, on CNN, referring to former Bush speechwriter Matt Latimer and his new tell-all book, Speech-less.

Verbatim

No one. It’s all the same old guys who were in leadership with me, and those old guys aren’t the leaders the party needs.

— Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX), in an interview with Politics Daily, on who he sees as the party’s “up-and-comers.”