“I just let that s--t roll off my back.”
— House Speaker John Boehner, responding to criticism in a Wednesday meeting with GOP lawmakers, according to The Hill.
Verbatim
“What are you going to do about it, grandpa?”
— Candidate for NYC mayor Anthony Weiner to his 69-year-old opponent George McDonald at an AARP-Univision forum this morning, according to the New York Post. McDonald reportedly told Weiner, 48, to not touch him again after they exchanged greetings.
“Michelle never said to me I could pick up something with my fingers at a State Dinner.”
— Obama, speaking to children whose recipes won them spots at the White House Kids' State Dinner on Tuesday, where Michelle Obama told them it was okay to eat with their hands.
“It not only calls for finishing a literal fence, it will create a virtual human fence of Border Patrol agents. Under the border surge, the Border Patrol will have the capacity to deploy an armed agent 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to stand guard every 1,000 feet from San Diego, CA, to Brownsville, TX.”
— Sen. Chuck Schumer advocating for the Corker-Hoeven amendment to the immigration reform bill. The amendment passed on a 67-27 vote Monday.
“If you didn’t get it done, then it’s your problem. And I accept that, that’s my job. So until I close Guantanamo Bay, they’re right, I haven't closed Guantanamo Bay.”
— President Barack Obama in an interview with Charlie Rose responding to the question of whether he is "Bush-Cheney Lite" for continuing many of the Bush administration's national security policies.
“For several months now, Mayor Booker has been taking the steps necessary to run, but he will make an official announcement at the appropriate time.”
— A spokesman for Newark Mayor Cory Booker said in a statement Tuesday after New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie announced a special election on October 16 to fill Sen. Frank Lautenberg's seat.
“Not every single commander believes what a sexual assault is, not every single commander can distinguish between a slap on the ass and a rape because they merge all of these crimes together.”
— Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) to the Joint Chiefs of Staff at an Armed Services Committee hearing Tuesday. Gillibrand believes that the military's sexual assault cases should be left up to prosecutors, not military commanders.
“The Obama administration is in an unexpected and sharp state of decline...What there is of an Obama agenda... [has] practically no chance of passage.”
— Fred Barnes, executive editor of the Weekly Standard, in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal.
“I have a job to finish here...Another thing that my mother used to say was, 'Do the job you have now well, and your future will take care of itself.' She knew I was ambitious. She could tell from the time I was a little kid I was always thinking about the next thing.”
— NJ Gov. Chris Christie in his PEOPLE Magazine profile coming out Friday.
“He's like soy sauce in Chinese food: He's everywhere.”
— Bill Allison of the Sunlight Foundation on Jeffrey Katzenberg, who gave or raised more than $30 million to reelect Obama in 2012, according to Mother Jones. Katzenberg is the CEO of DreamWorks Animation.
“This time next year, we will mark the final Memorial Day of our war in Afghanistan.”
— President Barack Obama in remarks Monday commemorating Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery.
“Because I am asserting my right not to testify, I know that some people will assume that I have done something wrong. I have not.”
— Lois Lerner, the director of the exempt organizations unit at the Internal Revenue Service, defending her right to invoke the Fifth Amendment during her testimony before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Wednesday.
“Everybody wants to see more spending. That's what this place is, it's a big spending machine.”
— California Governor Jerry Brown putting lawmakers on notice yesterday that he had no desire to ratchet up spending in his new budget, despite a multibillion-dollar windfall of tax receipts in recent months, according to the Los Angeles Times.