Political Quotes of the Day

[Dardedar]

Gary Hart writes for Huffington Post:

"This administration stands
indicted for incompetence and mendacity. That it still commands the loyalty
of even a quarter of our fellow citizens is testament to the
persistence of willful ignorance. Against all the facts assembled in this
indictment, that the administration's operatives can still make claims on
strength, security, and determination is chutzpah on stilts. That the media
still treat these operatives and spokespersons, and indeed the
president himself, seriously is witness to their desire for 'access' and
'sources' rather than their commitment to the truth."

LINK

[Dardedar]

"For me every day is an anniversary of Sept. 11." --Rudy Guliani

[Dardedar]

"After he leaves office, Bush is going to start a think tank.
That's right, it's like Michael Vick opening an animal shelter.
Yeah, the George Bush think tank: it only has a shallow end."
-- David Letterman

[Dardedar]

"President Bush’s TV address tonight was the worst speech he’s ever given on the war in Iraq, and that’s saying a lot. Every premise, every proposal, nearly every substantive point was sheer fiction. The only question is whether he was being deceptive or delusional. […]

The question could be asked throughout the speech… In what world is the president of the United States living?"

SLATE

[Dardedar]

"I don't think I have ever seen the world in such a mess,... I believe that Iraq is going to go down in history as the greatest disaster in American foreign policy. That means that I am acknowledging it is worse than Vietnam."
Madeleine Albright

***

"The Republicans in Congress lost their way.
They swapped principle for power.
They ended up with neither."
-- Alan Greenspan, link

***

"That's going back in history. I don't remember the details of it."
--Fred Thompson, when asked about Terri Schiavo and the right to die debate her case stirred up. TIME

[Dardedar]

What passes for tough questions on FOX News:

"Mr. Mayor, this is an odd question but I think you'll understand it: Is it weird being this liked?"
--Fox News anchor Brian Kilmeade, blowing Rudy on FOX News in front of everyone

As Bart notes:

"The same people who got so terribly upset about a 2-second glimpse of Janet Jackson's breast don't mind seeing FOX whores performing fellatio right there on their damn TV in the living room?"

[Dardedar]

An Un-Aired Bill Maher Segment:

***
New Rule: If you want your party back, you have to promise to take care of it next time.

Chuck Hagel, Christie Whitman, Larry Wilkerson — so many Republicans want their party back. It’s understandable. The Republican Party has become the property now of fundamentalist wackos and dead-eyed neo-cons, two groups that have exactly two things in common: a need to live in a fantasy world; and George W. Bush.

But what gets me about this “wanting my party back” chorus is that the people who want it back didn’t have to give it away in the first place. But they did. The political right made a Faustian bargain with religious conservatives way back in the 80s, and it finally came around to bite them in the ass. Ironically, they sold their soul to the Jesus freaks.

Year after year, election after election, the Republicans have been willing to mouth “family values” bullshit instead of policy, take convenient and irrelevant stands on things like the 10 Commandments and god and the pledge of allegiance, make nice with hair-brained creationists when they knew better, and generally reduce public discourse in this country to unbearable levels of ignorance and dumb-assery. And what did they get from all this? An ignorant dumb-ass of a president who actually believes all that crap. Nice work. I hope those extra votes were worth it.

And that ignorant dumb-ass, of course, was an easy target for the fringe think-tankers who call themselves neo-cons — the guys with no military experience whose brilliant idea for creating a “new American century” involved kicking the snot out of other countries until they love us. What a surprise that it didn’t pan out. It worked so well on the video game we all played at Bill Kristol’s place.

And now, the people on the rational right want their party back. Well, you shouldn’t have given it away in the first place.

[Dardedar]

"With brave American soldiers dying in record numbers, I have two questions for the President — just whose posteriors are we kicking and how do you know? With Sunnis and Shiites killing themselves and each other, plus an incompetence Maliki government, we don’t know who we’re fighting, much less where we’re kicking them. And while we’re tied up in Iraq, Al Qaeda thrives in Pakistan and Afghanistan. So the President’s turn of phrase will go to the blooper hall of fame with other Bush Golden Oldies like last throes, links to Al Qaeda and Mission Accomplished. There was a time when America’s success meant defeating Nazis, tearing down communism’s Iron Curtain and walking on the moon. Supportng our troops meant honest safeguards, not trash talk. How low have our standards fallen when the President points to the debacle he created and says, this is what I’m proud of. Most americans believe in a country that’s capable of much higher standards, and if America were really “kicking butt,” the President wouldn’t need to say anything, every one would know it. I yield back."

--Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY03) standing up on the House floor and asking President Bush a couple of questions.

[Dardedar]

Beliefnet asks John McCain:

"A recent poll found that 55 percent of Americans believe the U.S. Constitution establishes a Christian nation. What do you think?"

Answer:
"I would probably have to say yes, that the Constitution established the United States of America as a Christian nation. But I say that in the broadest sense. The lady that holds her lamp beside the golden door doesn't say, “I only welcome Christians.” We welcome the poor, the tired, the huddled masses. But when they come here they know that they are in a nation founded on Christian principles."

LINK

[Dardedar]

"The constitution supposes, what the History of all Governments demonstrates, that the Executive is the branch of power most interested in war, and most prone to it....It has accordingly with studied care, vested the question of war in the Legislature." --James Madison

[Dardedar]

"We're the British."
- Michael Bloomberg, comparing Iraqi insurgents
to Washington, Paine, Jefferson and Franklin

[Dardedar]

"A lot of people talk about impeaching Mr. Bush,
which should have been done certainly by now,
but impeachment is too good for him.
The man is a war criminal."
-- Michael Moore

[Dardedar]

"Like watching Bob Dole--without the Viagra."
-- Heritage Foundation's Robert Bluey, after a Fred Thompson speech

[Dardedar]

From the National Review:

"I was having drinks with a friend, a lifelong Republican, big Wall Street legal brain (but now retired),
sometime generous contributor to party funds, normally good-natured and mild-mannered. We weren’t
even talking politics. The topic was the current woes of the poor old dollar. Suddenly, with uncharacteristic
anger, my drinking buddy said something like this: “The federal government’s main functions are to
maintain a stable currency, keep us out of unnecessary foreign entanglements and wars, and patrol the
coasts and borders. That’s three strikes on George Bush, that goddamn piece of shit! The man’s been a
total fucking disaster. What the goddamn fucking hell was I thinking of, voting for this brain dead shithead?"
-- John Derbyshire, bigtime Republican, LINK

[Doug]

“The federal government’s main functions are to maintain a stable currency, keep us out of unnecessary foreign entanglements and wars, and patrol the coasts and borders. That’s three strikes on George Bush, that goddamn piece of shit! The man’s been a
total fucking disaster. What the goddamn fucking hell was I thinking of, voting for this brain dead shithead?"
-- John Derbyshire, bigtime Republican

DOUG
For many, it was a matter of voting for their wallets. GW has succeeded in making many of his friends very rich by war profiteering and no-bid contracts in other areas, such as cleaning up New Orleans.

Fool them once, shame on Bush. Fool them twice...uh...well, I guess they CAN get fooled again? No, actually they are fooling themselves the second time, and even now. What was the Republican thinking? He knows perfectly well what he was thinking, and he was NOT thinking about what is good for this country.

[Dardedar]

“If we took away women’s right to vote, we’d never have to worry about another Democrat president. It’s kind of a pipe dream, it’s a personal fantasy of mine, but I don’t think it’s going to happen. And it is a good way of making the point that women are voting so stupidly, at least single women.

--Ann Coulter

[Dardedar]

"There is a new Bush book out called the 'Evangelical President,' and it's pretty standard Bush idolatry.
If you buy though Amazon, they recommend you might also like 'The 10 Pound Bag of Bullshit..'" -- Bill Maher

[Dardedar]

Rush's Quotes

1) "The phony soldiers." --on U.S. service members who support withdrawal from Iraq

2) "He is exaggerating the effects of the disease. He's moving all around and shaking
and it's purely an act. ... This is really shameless of Michael J. Fox. Either he didn't
take his medication or he's acting." -- on Michael J. Fox supporting embryonic stem cell research



3) "And don't forget, Sherrod Brown is black. The New York Times doesn't mention that."
-- Note: Sherrod Brown is white

4) "This is no different than what happens at the Skull and Bones initiation...
I'm talking about people having a good time, these people, you ever heard of emotional release?
You ever heard of the need to blow some steam off?" --on the abuse & tortures at Abu Ghraib

5) "Too many whites are getting away with drug use...Too many whites are getting away with drug sales...
The answer is to find the ones who are getting away with it, convict them, and send them up the river, too."

6) "Sorry to say this, I don't think he's been that good from the get-go. I think what we've had here is a little social concern in the NFL. The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well. There is a little hope invested in McNabb, and he got a lot of credit for the performance of this team that he didn't deserve. The defense carried this team." --he "resigned" a couple days later

[Dardedar]

"If things haven't changed by our next visit, we may have to announce a revolution."
--MIKHAIL GORBACHEV, Former Soviet leader, surveying the slow recovery efforts in New Orleans' Lower 9th Ward

[Dardedar]

"You know, when you give a man more money in his pocket — in this case a woman more money in her pocket — to expand a business, it — they build buildings. And when somebody builds a new building, somebody has got to come and build the building. And when the building expanded, it prevented (sic) additional opportunities for people to work." --Bush, last week, Link

"The politics is coming around the corner here in 2008." I'm thinking of a song like, "The politics'll be comin' 'round the mountain when it comes ... ." --Bush, on the upcoming presidential race, ibid