Category: 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.

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.

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.”

“First of all, I think it’s important to realize that I was actually black before the election.”

— Pres. Barack Obama, on a recent Letterman Show appearance, commenting on whether resistance to his administration is based in racism.*

*Editors’ note: Which it is.

All pornography is homosexual pornography.

— Michael Schwartz, Sen. Tom Coburn’s (R-OK) chief of staff, quoted in the Washington Independent, at the Values Voter Summit.

I could have named my wife if I wanted to. Look at what Gov. Crist did in Florida — he put his chief of staff in there to hold the seat warm for him so he could run for the U.S. Senate. I didn’t do any of those things.

— former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D), appearing on Fox News, comparing how he handled filling a Senate vacancy with Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (R).

South Carolina: Too small to be a state, too big to be an insane asylum.

— Francis Allen (b. 1958), reacting to the controversy over Rep. Joe Wilson’s outburst during the president’s address to Congress

“Rep. Wilson apologized immediately afterward but I don’t think that’s adequate.”

“There ought to be a reprimand or censure of Rep. Joe Wilson to discourage that kind of conduct in the future.”

— Twin tweets from Sen. Arlen Specter (D – Penn.)

“Happy Labor Day! Wonderful parade at Chapin, many people called out to oppose Obamacare which I assured them would be relayed tomorrow to DC”

— Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) tweeting on his twitter page on Monday, Sept. 7

All we have to worry about is getting things done and doing them as well as we can. Don’t even worry about the Republicans. Let them figure out what they’re going to stand for. ‘Cause as long as they’re sitting around waiting for us to mess up, they don’t have a chance.

— Bill Clinton, in a must-read interview in Esquire