Recent statements from morons

We have eliminated the danger of sectarian war.

— Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki this week to visiting Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte.

I do think that it would not be a wise course to try to divine a pattern based on these decisions that came at the end of the session.

— White House spokeswoman Dana Perino, replying to a reporter who asked whether a series of 5-4 decisions handed down this week by the Supreme Court was “the kind of pattern that the White House had in mind when the President nominated [Chief Justice John] Roberts and [Associate Justice Samuel] Alito.”

Thank God that George Bush is our president, and thank God. And thank God that Dick Cheney, a man with his experience and his knowledge and his strength and his background is our vice president.

— Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani in remarks to the 2004 Republican National Convention.

What we’re lacking is strong, aggressive, bold leadership like we had with Ronald Reagan.

— Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani in remarks at a June 14 Flag Day rally in Wilmington, Del.

Don’t expect to agree with me on everything because that would be unrealistic. I don’t even agree with me on everything.

— Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani in remarks to about 650 business, corporate and political leaders at Regent University, the conservative Christian college founded by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson.

Superintendent Marion A. Bolden personally apologizes to Mr. Jackson and regrets any embarrassment and unwanted attention the matter has brought to him. The district takes pride in its diverse student population and supports all our students, regardless of race, gender, ethnic background or sexual orientation.”

—Statement by Newark, N.J., public schools’ general counsel Perry L. Lattiboudere after high-school officials “redacted” with black marker a yearbook photo of Andre Jackson, who is gay, kissing his boyfriend while photos of heterosexual couples kissing were left untouched.

If I’m going to say anything about John Edwards in the future, I’ll just wish he had been killed in a terrorist assassination plot.

— Conservative commentator Ann Coulter, appearing on ABC’s Good Morning America this week.

Well, we did have a defeat, but you didn’t give up hope and you didn’t stop trying. It was the vocal opposition of millions of Americans — crashing e-mail servers, jamming Senate office phone lines, calling into talk radio — that was responsible for today’s victory. It was the American people versus the Washington power elite, and as Ronald Reagan would say, “We won, they lost.”

So, congratulations! This is exactly what this newsletter, this movement and this country are all about — citizens leading Washington, not the other way around.

— Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich in an e-mail to “Winning the Future” supporters following Thursday’s Senate vote on the immigration bill.

As we improve security, we ought to have the ability to begin to manage the risk by looking to communities that haven’t gotten the help. And if we make the process political, if we start to make it personal, we’re actually going to frustrate good public policy, in terms of managing this money. [emphasis added]

— Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to PBS’ Jim Lehrer, June 1, 2006, on parceling out DHS security-preparedness money to various cities.

And finally, two statements about familiar morons:

It was a little like having a skunk tell you that you smell bad.

— Columnist Mike Leonard of the Bloomington (Ind.) Herald Times, explaining what it was like being “slimed” by Fox News program host Bill O’Reilly during his appearance on “The O’Reilly Factor.”

Rush [Limbaugh] and Sean [Hannity] are just about as important in the scheme of things as Paris Hilton, and I would hate to see them gain an ounce of credibility by being forced by a government agency or anybody else to moderate their views enough that they might become modestly influential or respected.

— House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) Thursday on why he voted against a House bill that would require conservative broadcasters to balance their content with liberal programming.

xpost: Scholars & Rogues and 5th Estate

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