Lingua publica
The
good and the bad...presented with permission from The Patriot E-Journal
web posted November 20, 2006
"It is total crap that we have to deal with an issue like [lobbying and ethics] when we've got a war going on and we got [sic] all these other issues." -- John Murtha
"The biggest winners in last week's election were the enemies of the United States, who see the results as confirmation of one of their doctrines: the United States is weak and does not have the commitment to fight a protracted war." -- Cal Thomas
"With the Democratic victory in the midterm elections, one big winner was the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). The American Islamic pressure group now has a chance to advance its agenda in numerous ways, with energetic water-carrying by, among others, the Speaker of the House, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and the first Muslim member of Congress." -- Robert Spencer
"Democrats support surrender in Iraq, higher taxes and the impeachment of President Bush. They just won an election by pretending to be against all three." -- Ann Coulter
"The first thing to be noted about Tuesday's election returns is that they were not, in any serious sense, a Democratic victory. They were, however, a thoroughgoing Republican defeat. The Democrats had practically nothing to do with it. They had no policy proposals to speak of -- least of all on Iraq, which they insisted was the central issue. But in a two-party system, if the voters decide to throw the rascals out, their only option is to throw the other rascals in. All the Democrats had to do was be there." -- William Rusher
"In private conversation, Republican members of Congress blame Majority Leader John Boehner and Majority Whip Roy Blunt in no small part for their midterm election debacle. Yet, either Boehner, Blunt or both are expected to be returned to their leadership posts Friday. For good reason, the GOP often is called ‘the stupid party'." -- Robert Novak
"This is not a time for true conservatives to hang their heads or to run for cover. This is a time for a moral, political, and spiritual renewal to grip the very heart of the nation." -- Harry R. Jackson, Jr.
"[Donald] Rumsfeld had better not travel abroad for a very long while; or he could be arrested. Same goes for [Attorney General Alberto] Gonzales and the other war criminals in this administration." -- Time magazine's Andrew Sullivan
"We have seen new polls this morning about you and Senator Hillary Clinton. Here's my question. Do you think that residual resistance is greater for race or for gender? Is the nation secretly, I guess, more racist or more sexist?" -- Diane Sawyer to Barack Obama
"Your strong voice for national security, the war on terror and Iraq provides genuine leadership for our party, and I count on you to continue to lead on these vital issues." -- Nancy Pelosi endorsing John Murtha for Majority Leader
"We need to begin a phased redeployment of forces from Iraq in four to six months... We have to tell Iraqis that the open-ended commitment is over." -- Carl Levin
"Since September 11, many Muslim Americans have been subjected to searches at airports and other locations based upon their religion and national origin. We must make [that] illegal." -- Nancy Pelosi
"Our strong inclination would be to avoid tax hikes. That's pretty universal. That shows the pragmatism of the Democratic Party. Even the most liberal people said ‘No, we shouldn't go for tax hikes.' So we are going to try to avoid it." -- Chuck Schumer
"This [election] is not a purely domestic issue for America, but it is the defeat of Bush's hawkish policies in the world. Since Washington's hostile and hawkish policies have always been against the Iranian nation, this defeat is actually an obvious victory for the Iranian nation." -- Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
"Today... [a] false truth is being spread: that most of our military personnel and our troops in Iraq are bright, motivated young people, who, with eyes wide open are defending our country from terrorists and spreading democracy." -- Charles Pinning of The Providence (RI) Journal
"You can rationalize what happened on Tuesday in the context of previous sixth-year elections -- 1986, 1958, 1938, yada yada -- but that's not how it was seen around the world, either in the chancelleries of Europe, where they're dancing conga lines, or in the caves of the Hindu Kush, where they would also be dancing conga lines if Mullah Omar hadn't made it a beheading offense." -- Mark Steyn
"We have divided government. Good, and for many reasons. One: It confuses our enemies. ‘Who do we hate now?' they ask in their caves, ‘the evil woman from San Francisco or the old infidel from Texas?"' -- Peggy Noonan
"George McGovern said Thursday U.S. troops should be brought home by June. John Dean in his new book accused the president of abuses in the White House. If this is a Twilight Zone episode, we're about a month before the break-in at the Watergate." -- Argus Hamilton
"Tuesday's elections would have turned out vastly different if Americans had known that the Democrats ‘plan' for Iraq would be to pick the brain of socialist and former presidential candidate George McGovern... Is this the best the Democrats have to offer in the way of ideas and leadership on Iraq?... It is perfectly understandable that Democrats would be wary of input from the likes of Al Gore, John Kerry, or John Murtha. Depending on that collection of vipers for help would be like seeking expert advice from Bill Clinton on ending marital infidelity..." -- John Lillpop
"Democrat Russ Feingold announced that he has decided not to run for President in 2008. Which finally answers the question no one asked." -- Conan O'Brien
"I have some good news about the health of Fidel Castro -- it got worse!" -- Jay Leno
web posted November 13, 2006
"This is a message from the voters that we really need to step up and reclaim the mantle of reform that propelled us to power 12 years ago." -- Rep. Eric Cantor
"The House has just engaged in runaway spending for far too long... [T]he one thing we could have stopped, but didn't, was runaway spending." -- Rep. Jeff Flake
"I don't care how many times the news programs, papers and magazines tell us the blowout last night was because of the Iraq war. It wasn't. It was because the American public has decided that Republicans are no longer good stewards of the U.S. Congress and threw them out." -- Rich Galen
"I think a fairly good case can be made that the story of Election 2006 is more about poorly-led House Republicans losing than Democrats winning." -- John Berthoud, president of the National Taxpayers Union
"Republicans have made matters worse by abandoning the reform agenda that animated their capture of Congress in 1994 and helped George Bush win the White House in 2000 and keep it in 2004. With scarcely a fight, Republicans gave up on Social Security reform in 2005, immigration reform in 2006, and never really got started on tax reform." -- Fred Barnes
The numbers from every corner of the country make it clear that the American people meant to send a message to their leaders, and the future of the conservative movement depends on an accurate reading of the substance they meant to communicate, and a realistic reassessment of the current state of our politics." -- Michael Medved
"George Allen, the Republican, carried 57 percent of the veterans vote in Virginia, despite the fact that Webb is a decorated veteran and a former Naval Secretary." -- CNN's Bill Schneider, not understanding why
"Listen, I think it's great that the Republican Party has discovered black people. But here's the thing... You don't vote for somebody because of what they look like. You vote for somebody because of what they stand for." -- Barack Obama stumping for white Democrat Ben Cardin in Maryland
"I know that all of you are going to work the next couple of days to make sure it happens, because I'm feeling lonely in Washington. I need my dear friend to join me." -- Obama stumping for black Democrat Harold Ford, Jr. in Tennessee
"John ‘Botched Joke' Kerry issued what purports to be an apology for his disparagement of U.S. servicemen... Kerry's apology isn't really an apology at all. Here's a shorter summary of it: 1. What I said wasn't really what I said. 2. I'm sorry if you misinterpreted what I was saying by taking it at face value. 3. Republicans suck. Why it is so hard just to say, ‘I'm sorry for what I said'?" -- James Taranto
"John Kerry is the ‘botched joke' of American politics. For those of you keeping score at home, John Kerry has now called members of the U.S. military (a) stupid, (b) crazy, (c) murderers, (d) rapists, (e) terrorizers of Iraqi women and children. I wonder what he'll call them tomorrow. Whatever Karl Rove is paying John Kerry to say stupid things, it's worth every penny." -- Ann Coulter
"John Kerry apologized and some political analysts are now saying that Senator John Kerry's botched joke about the troops hurt his chances at becoming president in 2008. Yeah, apparently, Kerry's chances at becoming president went from zero to less than zero." -- Conan O'Brien
"To be sure, the progressives deserve credit for having refined their view of the military: not murderers and rapists, just impoverished suckers too stupid for anything other than soldiering." -- Mark Steyn
"It's just a midterm election. It's not the end of the world. That comes later, if the wrong side wins." -- James Lileks
"There was a huge accident today. Apparently a bunch of Republican candidates trying to distance themselves from President Bush ran into a bunch of Democrat candidates trying to distance themselves from John Kerry. They just collided in the middle. It was gruesome." -- Jay Leno
web posted November 6, 2006
"It isn't actually our ‘system' of government that is broken. The Constitution established an excellent system from which contemporary leaders regularly seem to depart. The Founders gave us the parchment equivalent of a GPS system that, if followed, gets us where we ought to go, but if ignored, causes us to become lost." -- Cal Thomas
"The Democrats are more radically liberal and irresponsible than they have been at any time since 1933. The damage they will do to every aspect of federal action over the next two, four or six years will be substantial -- perhaps grave. For me, defeating that danger is the highest priority. After the election, beating up backsliding Republicans will be a task I will return to with relish." -- Tony Blankley
"No election season nowadays seems complete until someone has played the race card and maliciously charged someone else with bigotry." -- Jeff Jacoby
"The media can't conceal their rooting interest in this campaign, which leads them to pursue any narrative that's damaging to the GOP, even when it contradicts other narratives damaging to the GOP. When Republicans appeal to rural, white, socially conservative voters, they are Neanderthals. When Democrats do it, they are shrewd tacticians." -- Rich Lowry
"With just a week to go until the election, the airwaves are erupting with hard-hitting television ads, and in Tennessee the Democrats are charging that a spot paid for by the Republican National Committee constitutes racial fear-mongering against the Democratic Senate candidate, Harold Ford, who is African-American. The details of the ad hardly seem to matter -- the curious issue here has been the reaction. Mr. Ford's opponent, [Bob] Corker, has disavowed any connection to the ad, which he says was produced and financed without any input from him. The chairman of the RNC, Ken Mehlman, has also distanced himself from the ad. So no one knows who fathered this spot. Thank Senators McCain and Feingold. Strict limits on contributions directly to candidates and on candidates' ability to coordinate advertising messages with outside groups mean that even if Mr. Corker didn't agree with the ad airing on his behalf, there was nothing he could have done to keep it from running. Voters don't know whom to hold accountable. By shunting campaign spending to so-called 527 groups and tendrils of national parties, McCain-Feingold hasn't cleaned up American politics. The law has just made campaigns less about the actual candidates and more about a sideshow put on by competing interest groups. This is corrupting the political process by making it harder for voters to hear directly from the candidates for whom they will have the option to vote." -- New York Sun
"What is CNN doing running terrorist tape of terrorist shooting Americans? I mean, I thought Duncan Hunter asked you a very good question and you didn't answer it. Do you want us to win?" -- Lynne Cheney to CNN's Wolf Blitzer, who replied, "The answer, of course, is we want the United States to win. We are Americans. There's no doubt about it. You think we want terrorists to win?"
"I thought [Lynne's performance on CNN with Wolf Blitzer] was great. We refer to it around the house as the ‘slapdown'." -- Vice President Dick Cheney
"I was there. I like football, and I like girls." -- Rep. Harold Ford, Jr. responding to an RNC ad referencing his attendance at a Playboy Super Bowl party
"I think imagining the assassination of President Bush just struck me as being a very potent and very striking way of posing some questions about the way the war on terror has been handled, about some of the consequences of, of the last five years, really." -- Gabriel Range, director of the movie "Death of a President"
"You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq." -- John Kerry, who only values certain kinds of military service, with what he now calls a "botched joke"
"If I were a Republican candidate for Congress I would immediately change my campaign to reflect the New Jersey decision. I would say, ‘Connect the dots: If the Democrats win control of the House, Nancy Pelosi will be the Speaker. Nancy Pelosi is from where? San Francisco. San Francisco is known for what? Two things: A song by Tony Bennett and being ground zero for Gay rights. If you want Sister Boom-Boom to be the Clerk of the House, vote for the Democrat'." -- Rich Galen
"If Bush had gone to war with Iraq immediately after 9/11 and waited to attack Afghanistan, Democrats would now be pretending to support the Iraq war while pointlessly carping about Afghanistan. Afghanistan didn't attack us on 9/11! The Taliban didn't attack us! What's our exit strategy? How do you define ‘victory' in Afghanistan, anyway? It's a quagmire -- aahhhhh!" -- Ann Coulter
"[P]erhaps this is what America wants after five years of inconclusive war: not President Dad dealing with the bogeymen abroad and at home, but National Mom, turning the might and majesty of the U.S. government toward the expansion of the school lunch program." -- James Lileks
"Kerry insists he was making a joke about President Bush, not a joke about students who aren't smart enough to do better than the military. While there's virtually nothing in the text or video of his remarks to lend support for this, save for a wan smile he offered to the mute audience, it's possible that was his intent. After all, Kerry is an awful politician, a human toothache with the charisma of a 19th-century Oxford Latin tutor. One can't rule out the possibility that he simply botched a joke." -- Jonah Goldberg
"Dictator Kim Jung Il is ecstatic since setting off North Korea's first atomic bomb. They say he's walking around like he's five feet tall! ... He is a strange looking guy. He's little, he's got the big pompadour. Looks like Wayne Newton and William Hung had a kid!" -- Jay Leno
web posted October 30, 2006
"Why is it that many, if not all, of us think twice before we say what we really think or believe? Have we been silenced by the popular hecklers? Are we afraid? Is there a cultural inquisitor who stalks us all? Then, why is it that so many of us who know better about so much that we see around us cower and speak in hushed, mousy voices?" -- Justice Clarence Thomas
"Iraq is the excuse du jour for jihadists. But the important factor is that these are young men looking for an excuse. If you live your life calculating that it's a mistake to do anything that might prompt murderers and savages to act like murderers and savages, you've basically decided to live under their thumb and surrender your civilization in the process." -- Jonah Goldberg
"If the State Department has a religion, it's Palestinian statehood. On its altar, diplomats are eager to sacrifice the security of America's only reliable Middle East ally and, ultimately, our own security as well." -- Don Feder
"Voters are still used to having the final word in an election. But that could change if the election next month degenerates into the decisions in voting booths quickly being fought over by often unelected judges and trial lawyers practicing scorched-earth tactics." -- John Fund
"Now it appears that voters are willing to turn over Congress to a party most of whose representatives voted against allowing the National Security Agency to surveil without a court order al-Qaida suspects when they place calls to persons in the United States and against allowing terrorist interrogations under rules supported by John McCain. We are weary, it seems, and ready to go back on holiday." -- Michael Barone
"Impeachment is off the table... It's a pledge. Of course it is. It is a waste of time... Making [George Bush and Dick Cheney] lame ducks is good enough for me." -- Nancy Pelosi
"This is an unusual election in that the media have not even waited for the polls to open before declaring the results. Indeed, the Associated Press was forecasting a Democratic ‘landslide' as early as May. And since we all know that everything in the papers is true, if the Republicans end up winning, or at least holding their majorities, it can only mean that Karl Rove stole the election." -- James Taranto
"By the way, I asked for a raise in pay the other day. I really must not be a congressman. They don't have to ask." -- Paul Jacob
"Last Tuesday morning, in a maternity ward somewhere in the United States, the 300 millionth American arrived... One could have predicted the appalled editorials from European newspapers aghast at yet another addition to the swollen cohort of excess Americans consuming ever more of the planet's dwindling resources." -- Mark Steyn
"Democrats think military tribunals aren't good enough for the terrorists plotting to kill Americans today. Liberals are going to make the terrorists love us!" -- Ann Coulter
"What the French are to cuisine and collaboration, the Palestinians are to violence and terrorism." -- Don Feder
"It so happens that everything that is stupid is not unconstitutional." -- U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia
"Bill Clinton was recently asked about rumors he has once again been unfaithful in his marriage. Many Democrats are concerned with this and have warned him about it. When asked, Bill said that there was nothing to the rumors. One thing we know, when Bill Clinton denies something -- we can take that statement to the bank!" -- Jay Leno
"Democrats keep saying that Republicans are leading our country in the wrong direction. But if you listen carefully, the Democratic agenda can be boiled down to 3 R's: Raise taxes, Retreat from Iraq, and Redefine marriage. Raise, retreat, and redefine. This agenda doesn't reflect the priorities or values that the majority of Americans expect from the ‘People's House'." -- Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), Chairman of the U.S. House Republican Study Committee
"[W]hile there may not be many new ideas on the Democratic side of the aisle, as many Democrats themselves have complained, there are plenty of old -- arguably bad -- ideas awaiting resurrection." -- Detroit News columnist Thomas Bray
"The Democrats continue to complain about the Republican agenda. They harp that Republicans have cut taxes and grown the economy. The Dow is hitting new highs, yet the complaints keep coming. They moan about the situation in Iraq, yet have no plan of their own (other than cut-and-run) to put before the American public. So... what is their agenda?" -- Bobby Eberle, GOPUSA