* “The indicators show unequivocally that the world continues to warm.”–Thomas R. Karl, director of the National Climatic Data Center.
* “There is no Chavismo without Chavez. It is a personal project, and it lives and ends with him.”–Anibal Romero, political science professor at Simon Bolivar University, on the prospects of Venezuela’s “socialist revolution” continuing without President Hugo Chavez, who recently returned from Cuba where he underwent cancer surgery.
* “The states had extraordinary power under the Articles of Confederation. Most of them had their own navies and their own currencies. The truth is, the Constitution massively strengthened the central government of the U.S. for the simple reason that it established one where none had existed before.”–Richard Stengel, Time magazine.
* “Obama’s actual governing style emphasizes delegation and occasional passivity. Being led by Barack Obama is like being trumpeted into battle by Miles Davis. He makes you want to sit down and discern. But this is who Obama is, and he’s not going to change, no matter how many liberals plead for him to start acting like Howard Dean.”–David Brooks, New York Times.
* “We can’t save Medicare as we know it.”–Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn.
* “Three years after the meltdown of our financial markets, it’s clear who is winning and who is losing. Wall Street–arms outstretched in triumph–is racing toward the finish-line tape while millions of American families are struggling to stay on their feet. … There seems to be no correlation between who drove the crisis and who is paying the price. … With tens of millions still unemployed, isn’t it time to shift from an economy based on money making money to one based on money creating jobs and genuine prosperity?”–Phil Angelides, chairman of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission.
* “Worn out by the rampant sexting of Anthony Weiner and the relentless blogging of (New York) Archbishop (Timothy) Dolan, I’m wondering if our institutions need to rejigger: Maybe pols should be celibate and priests should be married.”–Maureen Dowd, New York Times.
* “I grew up in that environment. I know people can afford it.”–Minnesota’s Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton, who was born to wealth, on why he has been adamant in pushing for higher income taxes on the wealthy to help address his state’s $5 billion budget deficit.
* “She has in her power the ability to prevent a real shift in the balance of power on the court.”–Edwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California at Irvine law school, on the implications of 78-year-old Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg retiring before the next presidential election.
* “You’re doing a lot of things people had hoped you would do, and yet (your) approval rating recently has not been stellar. And I’m stunned as to why.”–Mike Huckabee on Gov. Rick Scott’s low approval ratings.
* “Our current political policy seems to be the way you create jobs is to make us the cheapest and least regulated state in the nation. I think that’s absolute stupidity.”–Former Florida Governor and U.S. Senator Bob Graham.
* “Believe it or not, we’ve never had a master plan for the city’s core.”–Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn on using a $1.2 million HUD grant to create a master plan covering downtown, Ybor City, Channelside, Tampa Heights, Riverside Heights and North Hyde Park.