* “All of this was done without putting a single U.S. troop on the ground.”–President Barack Obama on U.S. role in removing the regime of Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi.
* “A pleasant place, with the security of a prison but the facilities of a country club.”–Description of Moammar Gadhafi’s compound by David Blundy
and Andrew Lycett in their book “Gadhafi and the Libyan Revolution.”
* “Today in the world there is no place for authoritarian administrations, one-party rule, closed regimes. … Everyone should know that we are with the Syrian people.”–Turkish President Abdullah Gul.
* “We are neighbors, allies and friends. But you, too, are responsible.”–Mexican President Felipe Calderon in criticizing the U.S. for its lax gun laws and
high demand for drugs.
* “If countries address long term fiscal risks like rising pension costs or health care spending, they will have more space in the short run to support growth and jobs.”–Christine Lagarde, the International Monetary Fund managing director.
* “The country would be well served by a better process for making fiscal decisions.”–Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.
* “Everyday people are selling low, watching their 401(k)s evaporate, to big, smart, institutional investors. This is not bulls vs. bears; it is sharks against fur seals.”–Richard Parker, editor and president of Parker Media.
* “One thing to emerge from the Republicans’ attacks on the EPA is the early campaign path of Mitt Romney. Clearly, his strategy is to appear less loony and misinformed than his rivals.”–Carl Hiaasen, Miami Herald.
* “My wife basically said, ‘Listen, our country is in trouble, and you need to do your duty,’ and that was a pretty clarion call for me.”–Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry.
* “If the 2008 electorate were going to vote in the 2012 primaries, then Romney could handle Perry. But that electorate no longer exists.”–David Brooks, New York Times.
* “Of course, if Marco Rubio, the hard-line Cuban-American senator from Florida, snares the vice presidential slot for the Republicans, Democrats will feel pressure to tighten the screws of the embargo once again. And should the Republicans prevail in 2012, relations will almost certainly return to the Stone Age of non-engagement — hinged on the mantra that ‘Fidel will go any day now.'”–Ann Louise Bardach, author of “Without Fidel: A Death Foretold in Miami, Havana and Washington.”
* “We will turn out the lights, and we’ll lock the doors.”–Michelle Bachmann, in promising to eliminate the EPA.
* “The minute that the Republican Party becomes the anti-science party, we have a huge problem.”–Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman.
* “We don’t need a Federal Reserve System, we need a gold standard for our money.”–Ron Paul.
* “You know exactly who he is and what you see is what you get.”–Gov. Rick Scott’s description of presidential candidate Rick Perry.
* “We’re not testing the population at large that receives government money; we’re not testing people on scholarships or state contractors. So why these people? It’s obvious: because they’re poor.”–Derek Newton, spokesman for the ACLU of Florida, on state testing of welfare applicants for drugs.
* “We believe this law is a form of censorship that directly undermines the sanctity of the patient-physician relationship. …”–Journal of the American Medical Association commentary on Florida’s new law banning doctors from asking their patients questions about gun ownership.
* “What kind of message does it send about Florida’s work environment that a nationally recruited talent would be forced out after six months?”–Matt
Puckett, Police Benevolent Association, on the abrupt resignation of Corrections Secretary Edwin Buss.
* “It’s time to halt the ‘duty-free’ shops on the Internet that give a preferential free pass on collecting and remitting essential sales taxes, so the marketplace, rather than the government, can determine who survives and who sends Florida workers to unemployment lines.”–Carla Jimenez, vice president of the Tampa Independent Business Alliance and co-owner of Tampa’s Inkwood Books.
* “This is the beginning of the next chapter in Tampa’s history. We need to raise the bar, raise the money and get this done, because we aspire to be a great American city, not a mediocre one.”–Mayor Bob Buckhorn on planned expansion of the Florida Aquarium and the Mosaic Co.’s $2.5 million gift, the largest in the aquarium’s history.