* “We believe it would be more constructive to postpone the summit until we have more results from our shared agenda. Russia’s disappointing decision to grant Edward Snowden temporary asylum was also a factor that we considered in assessing the current state of our bilateral relationship.”–Presidential press secretary Jay Carney on the cancelation of next month’s summit between President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
* “A slap in the face to the United States of America … giving asylum to Edward Snowden.”–Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
* “The average CEO has gotten a raise of nearly 40 percent since 2009. The average American earns less than he or she did in 1999. … It’s not just morally wrong, it’s bad economics, because when middle class families have less to spend, guess what? Businesses have fewer consumers.”–President Barack Obama.
* “U.S. corporate tax rates are higher than the tax rates of other big economies. Wrong. After deductions and tax credits, the average corporate tax rate in the U.S. is lower. According to the Congressional Research Service, the United States has an effective corporate tax rate of 27.1 percent, compared to an average of 27.7 percent in the other large economies of the world.”–Robert B. Reich, former secretary of labor in the Clinton administration.
* “The reality is that much is classified just to take the issue off the public agenda. That’s not what classification is for, but it often serves that purpose.”–Steve Aftergood, Federation of American Scientists secrecy expert.
* “We need to ensure that incarceration is used to punish, deter and rehabilitate–not merely to convict, warehouse and forget.”–U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.
* “Anyone who says that racial discrimination is not a problem in American elections must not be paying attention.”–Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
* “(Anthony) Weiner is the poster boy for a sub-species of lawmakers who are really noisemakers, maestros of the cable-ready kerfuffle, their sights set on MSNBC or Fox News or Politico, their need for notice constant. He’s a fun house mirror of narcissism in politics … .”–Frank Bruni, New York Times.
* “She has a great ability to keep speculation around her swirling, but I think that it’s pretty clear watching her over the last couple of years, there’s not much interest in either substantive policy issues or actual governance.”–Former McCain-Palin campaign manager Steve Schmidt on whether Sarah Palin might run for the U.S. Senate in 2014.
* “Do you want a terrible economy and a low loan rate? I’ll take a recovering economy all day long.”–Sandy Garcia, vice president of the Mortgage Bankers Association of Florida, on home-loan rates edging higher.
* “The marriage between the newspaper industry and technology has never been consummated, but it could happen at The Washington Post now.”–Media analyst Ken Doctor of Outsell Inc. on the purchase of the Post by Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos.
* “They have been entirely deficient up until about six months ago. All the noise was coming from the other side. We have to ramp it up as to the benefits.”–Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., assessing the Obama administration’s approach to selling the Affordable Care Act.
* “There are a lot of people who thought he did a good job when he was governor. Everything I hear from my friends in Florida is, he’s going to be very competitive.”–Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., on Charlie Crist’s chances in a gubernatorial challenge to Rick Scott.
* “You don’t always agree with him, but you know where he stands.”–Gov. Rick Scott on New Port Richey Republican Mike Fasano, who recently resigned from the House to become Pasco County’s tax collector.
* “I believe a holistic review of Florida’s justice system is long overdue, and I also think that mass incarceration, a result of inequities and other flaws in our system, is a fundamental conservative issue that Speaker Weatherford and other Republicans can and should embrace.”–Rep. Perry Thurston of Fort Lauderdale, the Democratic leader of the Florida House of Representatives.
* “The answer remains the same: We are not for sale.”–Tampa Bay Times CEO Paul Tash.
* “Until we can build the brand awareness for the Tampa Bay area in Latin America, we are still counting heavily on local support to sustain us.”–Joseph Mohan, Copa Airlines’ vice president-commercial.
* “Access to clean, potable water should not be a privilege but a basic right for all of our citizens. I think we ought to take private franchises out of that role.”–Hillsborough County Commissioner Kevin Beckner.
* “They need to decide if this is a system of improvement or if this is a system of sledge-hammering. We are at a crossroads.”–Pinellas County school superintendent Mike Grego on the A-F school model.
* “Over the next four to five years, Hillsborough County will experience a rash of new hotel development not seen in this area for the past 15 years.”–Lou Plasencia, founder of The Plasencia Group, a hospitality real estate firm.