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If Dick Cheney can support marriage, so can every senator. So can every Democrat, Republican, liberal, conservative. Equality should know no bounds, and we must not rest until we have marriage in all fifty of these United States.
— Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), speaking at a fundraising dinner in support of gay marriage.
And so this idea that we’re suddenly going to establish litmus tests, and all across the country, we’re going to purge the party of anybody who doesn’t agree with us 100 percent — that guarantees Obama’s re-election. That guarantees Pelosi is Speaker for life. I mean, I think that is a very destructive model for the Republican Party.
— Newt Gingrich, in an interview on Fox News.
Callista and I are going to think about this in February 2011. And we are going to reach out to all of our friends around the country. And we’ll decide, if there’s a requirement as citizens that we run, I suspect we probably will. And if there’s not a requirement, if other people have filled the vacuum, I suspect we won’t.
— Newt Gingrich, asked if was going to run for president in 2012 on C-SPAN this morning.
“Who cares what – Yeah, yeah, I can see the headline now. I’m getting better, guys. I’m getting a little better, you know what I mean?”
Vice Pres. Joe Biden, in response to reporters asking about criticism of the Obama administration’s Afghanistan and Pakistan policies from former Vice Pres. Dick Cheney.
As some Republican senators have said publicly — that if we kill Obama on this, and we destroy this, and we defeat this, that will drive a stake through the political heart of this administration. I just find that about as irresponsible of a thing as I can think of.
— Former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE), quoted by The Hill, on the health care reform efforts.
If you seek to be a perfect minority, you’ll remain a minority. That’s not how Reagan built his revolution or how we won back the House in 1994.
— Newt Gingrich, quoted by The Corner, defending his endorsement of Dede Scozzafava (R) in the upcoming NY-23 special election over Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman.
We hunt liberal, tree-hugging Democrats, although it does seem like a waste of good ammunition.
— Rep. Gregg Harper (R-MS), in an interview with Politico, on his participation in the Congressional Sportsmen Caucus.
Whether the White House engages with Fox is a tactical political question. Whether we journalists continue to do so is an ethical one. By appearing on Fox, reporters validate its propaganda values and help to undermine the role of legitimate news organizations. Respectable journalists — I’m talking to you, Mara Liasson [of NPR] — should stop appearing on its programs. A boycott would make Roger Ailes too happy, so let’s try just ignoring Fox for a while. And no, I don’t want to come on The O’Reilly Factor to discuss it.
— Jacob Weisberg, writing in Slate.
The problem with Beck, then, is not his narrative, which is entertainingly foolish to anyone who actually knows anything about anything. The problem is the size of the audience in the United States that actually knows nothing about nothing. This mass (my guess, about 12 percent of the electorate) is easily moved, the past summer and its continuing silly rhetoric on all kinds of issues indicate. They wear know-nothingness like a badge.
— Charles M. Madigan, presidential writer in residence at Roosevelt University, opining on the real reason behind Glenn Beck’s surging popularity.
Watching Beck, who sometimes resembles a snake-oil salesman’s dim-witted assistant accidentally promoted to the top job, makes a foreigner wonder just what’s happening to American conservatism … I don’t want to seem forward or rude, but one can’t help but ask: Have you people lost your minds?
— Alex Massie, Scottish journalist, writing about Glenn Beck’s introduction to the United Kingdom for The Daily Beast.
