* “We don’t need to spike the football, and I think that given the graphic nature of these photos, it would create some national security risk.”–President Barack Obama explaining why the U.S. government will not release photos of the slain Osama bin Laden.
* “It’s lawful to target an enemy commander in the field.”–U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on the legality of killing Osama bin Laden.
* “I’ve never known relations between the U.S. and Pakistan to be as bad as they are right now. … I don’t think any settlement in Afghanistan is possible without the cooperation of Pakistan.”–Jamsheed Marker, former Pakistan ambassador to the United States.
* “It’s still too early to surmise whether Barack Obama will be a great president, but we now can be confident that he isn’t Jimmy Carter.”–Jonathan Alter, author, “The Promise: President Obama, Year One.”
* “It is blindingly obvious that the nation’s desperate fiscal condition requires higher taxes on the middle class, not just the richest 2 percent. Likewise, entitlement reform requires means-testing the giant Social Security and Medicare programs, not merely squeezing the far smaller safety net in areas like Medicaid and food stamps.”–David Stockman, former director of the Office of Management and Budget, 1981-85.
* “Over the years, the democratic values have swamped the republican ones. We’re now impatient with any institution that stands in the way of the popular will, regarding it as undemocratic and illegitimate. Politicians see it as their duty to serve voters in the way a business serves its customers. The customer is always right.”–David Brooks, New York Times.
* “The ideological purists want one of their own, but there are plenty of influential people in the party like Karl Rove who will push for a candidate who can win. They may have to have a civil war before someone can emerge.”–Bruce Buchanan, presidential politics specialist, University of Texas, on GOP presidential-candidate dynamics.
* “We just saw the president of the United States required to show his papers, like some brother caught driving too nice a car in too nice a neighborhood after dark. Presidenting while black, I suppose.”–Leonard Pitts Jr., Miami Herald.
* “It’s easy to talk about–you know, down at the post office, at the bar–you know, we ought to do this thing. But when you start looking in people’s eyes and understand they are people who live and breathe just like us–I think we all need to think about it very carefully.”–Sen. J.D. Alexander, R-Lake Wales, on adding perspective to the issue of immigration reform.
* “We’ve changed the direction of the state. … All the things we knew we had to get done have happened. We can all be proud of what’s happened this session.”–Gov. Rick Scott.
* “We will not forfeit our rights to an unconstitutional health care takeover. We must prevail. This is bigger than health care.”–Attorney General Pam Bondi.
* “Florida is a wreck. … Maybe legislators should work on naming an official state gun.”–Gail Collins, New York Times.
* “When we started cutting personnel from school systems, volunteers stepped up and said, ‘Okay, we’ll start coming in, we’ll do lunch duty, we’ll do bus duty. … (But) we cannot do any more. We cannot volunteer to be teachers.'”–Melissa Erickson, Hillsborough PTA president.
* “Players play, coaches coach, managers manage and owners own. I keep my distance because they don’t need to see me every day. … I let these guys do their jobs. I have full confidence they can do it. They don’t need me screwing it up.”–Lightning owner Jeff Vinik on his ownership philosophy.