A Few Days Left: Quote of the Day 1/14

With a new message out from Osama bin Laden today, Dick Cheney's comment below bears mentioning. Wolf Blitzer asked the VP about his disappointment over not being able to capture the man who orchestrated the largest ever attack on America.

His response? We've still got a few days left... and some words of support for the domestic spying and torture policies that have kept us all so safe these past few years.

There's a legal principle (noted on The West Wing) that deals with this kind of reasoning: Post hoc ergo propter hoc. That B follows A does not mean that A caused B.

Quote of the Day 12/31: New Year's Eve

It's New Years Eve, and I'm a little tired of people trashing the holiday as disappointing. Here's a quote from Deadspin.com's Will Leitch that sums up my feelings on the subject:

"I hear people complain about New Year’s Eve, that it’s always made into a big event that ultimately disappoints, that they feel pressured to have some kind of momentously fun time. These people are sad, really, incredible dullards and whiners. Pressured to have fun? Hey, I’ll take that kind of pressure every time, no problem. I wish I was pressured to have fun every day, rather than pressured to pay the bills, pressured to hold onto my job, pressured to keep my head above water. If you can’t relax and have fun on New Year’s Eve, well, you’ve got more problems than this column can solve, so there is no hope for you here."

So enjoy tonight (safely, of course)... and happy 2009.

"Cheney Out"- Quotes of the Day 12/16

"Once they get here and they're faced with the same problems we deal with every day, then they will appreciate some of the things we've put in place... We did not exceed our constitutional authority, as some have suggested. The President believes, I believe very deeply, in a strong executive, and I think that's essential in this day and age. And I think the Obama administration is not likely to cede that authority back to the Congress. I think they'll find that given a challenge they face, they'll need all the authority they can muster.

"Guantanamo has been very, very valuable. And I think they'll discover that trying to close it is a very hard proposition. They're unlawful combatants. And you if you're not going to have a place to locate them like Guantanamo, then you either have to bring them here to the continental United States and I don't know any member of Congress who's volunteering to have al Qaeda terrorists deposited in his district."

"We're on the downside of a recession that may be the worst since World War II. And if the automobile industry goes belly up now, there's a deep concern that that would be a major shock to the system."

- Vice President Dick Cheney on the Rush Limbaugh Radio Show. Cheney's support for an auto bailout has some produced some unlikely liberal allies.

His comments on Guantanamo and expansive view of executive power are decidedly less surprising.

Quote of the Day 12/14

"Barack Obama says we only have one president at a time. The problem with that is it overstates the number of presidents we have at this time."

- Rep. Barney Frank calling for more leadership from the president- elect on 60 Minutes tonight.

Quote of the Day 11/17

Bob Hope delivers this classic one- liner in 1940's The Ghost Breakers.

Quote of the Day 8/22

"I'd love to go one on one with Lieberman in the Octagon."

- Doug Flynn, who hopes that McCain chooses Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) as his running mate.

... Starting now: New Quote of the Day 8/13

I can't believe he said that...

Jesus Saves- Quote of the Day 8/13

"[Pelosi] is committed to her global warming fanaticism to the point where she has said that she's just trying to save the planet. We all know that someone did that over 2,000 years ago, they saved the planet -- we didn't need Nancy Pelosi to do that."

- Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-MN) on why we don't need to worry about global climate change.

Would We Lie?- Quote of the Day 8/11

"Of course it wasn't hush money!"

- Former John Edwards Finance director, confidante, and rich guy Fred Baron on whether the $15,000/ month he's been giving to former Edwards aide Andrew Young and former Edwards mistress Rielle Hunter is in exchange for the pair's stance that Young (and not Edwards) is the father of Rielle's baby.

Baron said he's given money to both Young and Hunter to leave North Carolina and escape press, and has also covered their "overhead" costs. He denies Edwards ever knew he was funding the pair.

Edwards recently admitted to the affair with the 42 year old documentarian, but denied he's the father of her child, even though he was photographed visiting them recently.

So, to recap:

• Oct. 10, 2007: The National Inquirer reports the affair
  
• Oct. 11, 2007: Hunter issues a denial: "The innuendoes [sic] and lies that have appeared on the internet and in the National Enquirer are not true, completely unfounded and ridiculous... my conduct was completely professional. This concocted story is just dirty politics and I want no part of it."
• Same day: Edwards denies affair
  
• Dec. 19: National Inquirer reports Hunter's pregnant and Edwards is the father
• Later that day: Through an attorney, Young issues statement that he's the father, is leaving the campaign, and Edwards had no idea about the relationship
• July 22, 2008: National Inquirer reports that Edwards visited Hunter and baby at an LA hotel
• July 23: Edwards denies story again- "The tabloid trash is full of lies"
• August 8: National Inquirer publishes photos of LA hotel meeting
• Same day: Edwards admits affair

So, after all that lying, they contend that Edwards is not the father and that he had no idea his close friend was paying the alleged father and mistress $15k/ month. Because that's something he'd be kept in the dark about...

Edwards claimed he met with Hunter at the assistance of a "mutual friend" to hear her story of struggle with the publicity.

Although Edwards claims he would take a paternity test, Hunter said she will not allow it.

Quote of the Day 7/29/08

"... This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."

- Sir Winston Churchill at the Lord Mayor's Luncheon, Mansion House following the victory at El Alameinin North Africa, London, 10 November 1942.

Seems appropriate as tomorrow, Wednesday day afternoon, will (mercifully) conclude my legal education and experience in higher learning.

Unless, of course, I fail the NY Bar. But, then again, no one lost more campaigns or jobs than Churchill so I'd be in good company.

Ja Können Wir: Quote of the Day 7/23

"Barack Obama's visit shows: there is another America."

- Germany's Green Party Parliamentary leader Reinhard Buetikofer, on why his country is so passionate about the presumed Democratic nominee's visit to Berlin.

Although only 13,000 Americans live in Berlin, over 1 million are expected to attend the speech, with 4 TV stations carrying the entire thing live.

And Ted Kennedy can do a Mean Figure Four: Quote of the Day 7/9

"All you Minnesotans take a good hard look at all three of us. And you decide: if you were in a dark alley which one of the three of us would you want with you?"

- Jesse Ventura on his qualifications to be a US Senator. It looks like Ventura will challenge Republican Norm Coleman, whom he defeated for governor in 1998, and comedian-turned-political commentator-turned- candidate Al Franken for Minnesota's Senate seat.

Clearly, the good people of Michigan employed the same criterion when electing Senator Debbie Stabenow.

Quote of the Day 5/ 30

"Scott McClellan says the president lied to get us into Iraq. That took balls, Scott... 5 years ago."

- Stephen Colbert

Quote of the Day 5/21

"It was in this great state where we took the first steps of an unlikely journey to change America. The skeptics predicted we wouldn't get very far. The cynics dismissed us as a lot of hype and a little too much hope. And by the fall, the pundits in Washington had all but counted us out. But the people of Iowa had a different idea..."

- Presumptive Democratic Nominee Barack Obama giving a speech in Iowa on the night he secured a majority of the elected- delegates for the primaries.

According to CNN, Obama's five delegates from his crushing defeat in Kentucky give him 1627 of the total 3253, a majority. He is unlikely to reach the clinching 2025 without help from superdelegates.

Obama' s campaign really took off in Iowa, where a very young and predominantly white electorate gave his candidacy a sense of possibility and legitimacy. Before that, he even trailed among African- Americans, among whom he now leads at about 9:1.

Back in the Hawkeye State, Obama looked toward his general election showdown with Sen. John McCain, and said the Republican primary was a bunch of guys trying to "Out- Bush" one another, and that McCain won.

Meanwhile, he commended Sen. Clinton, and his campaign manager, David Axelrod wouldn't admit that the race is over. Of the secured majority he said, "It's an important milestone," but not the end of the race.

One way to put it: Quote of the Day 5/16

“This is bullshit, this is malarkey. This is outrageous, for the president of the United States to go to a foreign country, to sit in the Knesset ... and make this kind of ridiculous statement.”

- Sen. Joe Biden on President Bush's comments before Israel's Knesset on its 60th anniversary. Bush said that

"... some people [believe the United States] should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along."

We have heard this foolish delusion before. Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is — the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."

The comments seemed addressed to presumed Democratic nominee Barack Obama, who said he would open the lined of communication up with hostile forces like Iran and North Korea.

Quote of the Day 5/14

The bottom line is this: the White House is won in the swing states, and I am winning in the swing states... The question is: why do so many people keep voting? Why did 64% of Democrats say in a recent poll say they wanted this race to continue?

- Sen. Hillary Clinton after her huge 67- 26% victory in West Virginia.

Senator Clinton won the primary in Ohio, which decided the 2004 election, Florida (though Sen. Obama didn't campaign there), which decided 2000, and now West Virginia, which no Democrat has won the White House without since Woodrow Wilson in 1916.

The White House is indeed won in the swing states, that's what makes them swing states. The question that underlies Sen. Clinton's bottom line is: what are this year's swing states?

If the Democrats need West Virginia this time around, Sen. McCain can probably start measuring the Oval Office drapes now.

But Obama has beaten Clinton in Republican- leaning states that he could win November: Virginia, Colorado, New Mexico and Missouri among others. If Obama won a couple of these, West Virginia and other more traditional swing states might not matter.

Carville Rages On: Quote of the Day 5/4

When I worked for James Carville a couple of years back, I was always amazed at his ability to find the perfect turn-of-phrase to fit any situation. They were sometimes crude, usually funny, and always insightful. That ability is on full display in a recent Newsweek article.

On Barack Obama's string of Superdelegate endorsements, Carville quipped,

"A superdelegate commitment and a four bucks will get you a cup of coffee at the Ritz Carlton."

He also took note of Obama's increasing vulnerability and perceived lack of toughness,

"Everything that's happened to him is not because of her. She hasn't laid much of a glove on him other than just being there."

Sen. Clinton, he argued is easily the tougher of the two candidates,

"If she gave him one of her cojones, they'd both have two."

How great is that?

Quote of the Day 4/ 10: Second Chances

"I quit drinking -- and it wasn't because of a government program. It required a little more powerful force than a government program in my case"

- President George W. Bush, after signing the "Second Chance Act" -- a government program to aide recovered substance abusers -- into law.

The law is a prisoner re-entry program that helps convicted felons transition back into society and provides additional federal funding to reduce prison populations by creating job training programs, along with substance abuse and family stability support.

This is the third time he has brought up his history with drinking publicly in recent months.

Quote of the Day 4/7: Approaching normal

"[Recent reductions in violence have left Iraq] approaching normal political and economic life for the average Iraqi.

Political reconciliation is occurring across Iraq at the local, provincial, grassroots level... Sunni and Shi'a chased from their homes by terrorist and sectarian violence are returning. The 'Sons of Iraq' and Awakening movements, where former Sunni insurgents have now joined in the fight against Al Qaeda, continue to grow."

- John McCain on what he sees happening today in Iraq. His presidential bid is largely tied to the stability of the country, and the American public's willingness to stay there for "maybe 100" more years.

Quote of the Day 4/3: So?

"So?"

- Vice President Dick Cheney being confronted with the statistic that 2/3 of Americans feel the War in Iraq is not worth it. See below...