* “We should be lucid: a country that depends almost entirely on the international community for the salaries of its soldiers and policemen, for most of its investments and partly on it for its current civil expenditure, cannot be really independent.”–Bernard Bajolet, departing French ambassador to Afghanistan.
* “We’ve all suspected it. But for President Karzai to admit it out loud brings us into a bizarro world.”–Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, on the admission by Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai that he has taken bags of cash from the CIA for a decade.
* “There are limits to what outsiders can do with military force; local realities trump global abstractions. It is not enough to want to do good; goals must also be achievable at a cost in line with interests. We ignore these truisms at our peril.”–Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations.
* “It’s not sustainable–the notion that we’re going to keep100 individuals in no man’s land in perpetuity.”–President Barack Obama in saying he would recommit himself to closing the Guantanamo Bay prison.
* “I sit here all day long trying to persuade people to do things they ought to have sense enough to do without my persuading them … That’s all the power of the president amounts to.”–The late President Harry Truman.
* “Suddenly, out of nowhere, the world seems to be awash in hydrocarbons.”–Michael Greenstone, environmental economics professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
* “If two people think they’re the smartest in the room, one of them must be wrong, I think. Must be why I continue to be fascinated by the charlatans who inhabit politics.”–Leo Morris, The Fort Wayne News-Sentinel.
* “It turned out the election authorities in Florida hadn’t done a real good job there and kind of messed it up. And probably the Supreme Court added to the problem at the end of the day.”–Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor reflecting on Bush vs. Gore, which ended the Florida recount and decided the 2000 presidential election.
* “They (gun control advocates) use tragedy to try to blame us, to shame us into compromising our freedom for their political agenda. No matter what it takes, we will never give up or compromise our constitutional freedom, not one single inch.”–NRA Executive VP Wayne LaPierre.
* “In this country, you are better off being rich and guilty than poor and innocent.”–Yale Law School Professor Stephen Bright.
* “If you do not do Medicaid expansion, or something similar to that, there is a very real penalty imposed upon the employers of the state of Florida.”–Sen. David Simmons, R-Altamonte Springs.
* “This was a great (legislative) session.”–Gov. Rick Scott.
* “The key to meaningfully growing the Florida economy is not its tax structure. It’s been more than competitive for years. The critical elements remain manifestly obvious: infrastructure and education.”–Joe O’Neill, La Gaceta.
* “This is probably as aggressive time as we have had in the past five to seven years. With the ongoing discussion of what may be going on in the Channelside area, all of a sudden you are not hearing any new development strategy without a hotel being included.”–Bob Morrison, executive director of the Hillsborough County Hotel & Motel Association.
* “He’ll be a good friend to the mayors around the country, which is good.”–Mayor Bob Buckhorn on the nomination of Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx as U.S. Transportation Secretary.
* “If how we looked the last 15 games is how we look the first15 games (next season), we’re in trouble.”–Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jon Cooper.