SAY WHAT?
"We'd exempt ourselves from gravity if we could."
Rep. Dean Heller, R-Nev., on the defeat of one of his health care reform amendments, which would have required members of Congress and the president to enroll in any taxpayer-funded "public option" as their health insurance.
"The fact that the recovery act is multifaceted doesn't reflect a lack of design. It is the design. Our economy is so complex and so wounded that reinvigorating one segment alone -- or using one tool alone -- would never do all that needs to be done."
Vice President Joe Biden, trumpeting the Obama administration's $787 billion stimulus package as reaching and exceeding goals, even though most of it hasn't been spent yet. Which begs the question: If politicians have such a precise and thorough understanding of the economy and what it takes to help it, why are they proposing huge tax increases and growing government as unemployment rises?
"The easiest thing to move is the troops. You put them on a plane and ship them out. The heavy stuff is going to be the hard stuff. They have been planning this for several years ... and it is probably still overwhelming."
Tim Brown, an intelligence and military analyst at GlobalSecurity.org, as the U.S. military continues packing up to leave Iraq in what has been deemed the largest movement of manpower and equipment in modern military history.
"I cannot change the course of events, but we are beating ourselves up over this and continue to do so. We should have been more inquisitive, more curious and turned over a rock or two."
Contra Costa County Sheriff Warren E. Rupf, acknowledging that they blew a chance three years ago to rescue Jaycee Dugard, who was kidnapped at age 11 from South Lake Tahoe area and held captive in California for nearly two decades.
