Why should WE pay our taxes?

As the list of influential Democrats with tax evasion problems grows, it causes the average  law abiding American to give pause and wonder why we struggle to meet our tax obligations and fear the consequences if we don't. Apparently, we don't have to worry whether we pay or not.  Just ask Rangel, Franken, Daschel, and Geitner.  If we are to believe what we hear every day in the news, the only time we really need to pay up is when we either run for political office or get tapped for a Cabinet position.  Why aren't the same standards applied equally?  Lots of Americans will have problems paying taxes this year.  Will they be allowed to simply ignore their obligation, claiming oversight, forgetfulness or miscommunication with tax accountants? California is planning to withhold state tax refunds for at least 30 days because they are short on cash.  They expect residents to pay on time, but don't feel obligated to refund on time.  It would be interesting to learn whether or not California is turning away 'undocumented' persons from emergency rooms, jails or schools, telling them there is no money right now to continue to take care of their needs.

Governments cannot spend money or give money to anyone until they first collect money from citizens.  If Americans refused to pay taxes on April 15th, that would solve the stimulus bill issue really fast.  No money coming in; no money to spend.  Republican Congressman, Louis Gohmert, from Texas recently called for an Income Tax Holiday.  Some form of his plan sounds pretty good right now.  Rather than Americans paying tax revenues to a government that refuses to listen and abide by public opinion as to how it is spent, we might want to pursue the plan that provides a holiday from paying all federal income tax based on wages and FICA withholding tax.  Gohmert's proposed plan was for two months, but maybe it should be expanded even further.  Let us keep our money for awhile to spend, invest or save as we see fit.  We'll stimulate the economy ourselves, supporting businesses and banks of our choice, and allowing those that are weak or poorly managed to fail.  Surviving businesses will be stronger and have the ability to grow, expand and increase hiring.

 It might just be that Americans that work hard every day and live in fear of getting on the wrong side of the IRS, actually could do a lot better job in turning back the recession than those that have no regard for the law.

Bill Richardson, politician on the make

Editor: New Mexico scion John Dendahl was the 2006 GOP nominee against Gov. Bill Richardson, recently dropped from Obama's cabinet under a cloud of scandal. We asked Dendahl, now a Coloradan, for his candid impressions of a 30-year acquaintance with Richardson. Here they are. LEAVING EMPEROR BILL'S REALM Years of Buyers’ Remorse over Richardson Lie Ahead in the Land of Enchantment

Moving away from New Mexico in early 2007 was neither easy nor fun. The state calls itself “Land of Enchantment,” an apt description in many ways. The lovely city of Santa Fe had been my family home for about 130 years. I am among the third of four Dendahl generations born in Santa Fe and had spent most of my 68 years there.

However, perhaps hearkening to the echo of Ayn Rand’s fictional hero John Galt in Atlas Shrugged, my wife and I decided to leave. New Mexico has long carried a rap for political malodor on account of corruption growing out of patronage. Under the “leadership” of Gov. Bill Richardson, political corruption had grown from several traditional pockets to envelop the entire state.

Richardson’s combination of pay-to-play and ruthless retaliation have dragged to the level of prostitute or whipped dog too many citizens who should be principled civic leaders. Something bordering on a cross between a brothel and a pound no longer felt like home!

I’ll explain how one can make such an accusation, but first an important disclaimer.

In mid-2006, the Republican candidate for governor withdrew and the party’s governing committee designated me as his successor on the ballot for the general election in November. I was decisively defeated by the incumbent Richardson. Some would like to attribute my move a few months later to that loss. I had had no expectation of defeating a man who had been in public office for most of a quarter of a century and would spend at least 40 times what I did in a 20-week campaign.

I loved my state, found Richardson disgusting, and went into this campaign determined to expose for voters the dismal conditions into which they were being plunged. Let the electoral chips fall where they may.

Richardson and I “met” via a phone call from him in 1979. I was a NM business executive whose name was periodically in the papers as a nuclear energy advocate. He was a recent carpet-bagger who picked the state as a good prospect to elect him to the U.S. House and was looking for campaign support. When that 10-minute call ended, I thought to myself the man is a pandering liar. I met him personally at a friend’s home a few weeks later, where he and his wife were passing out palm cards. The first “promise” on the palm card was directly opposite to the main point he emphasized in our earlier conversation, thus affirming my first impression. I have never encountered another individual whose bad character was so instantly obvious to me yet so apparently opaque to many others.

Richardson lost that 1980 congressional race to the Republican incumbent, but New Mexico gained a new U.S. House seat one election later. Richardson won the new seat in 1982 and remained in it until early 1997 when Bill Clinton appointed him to be the U.S. representative to the United Nations. During 16 years’ service in Congress, Richardson continued to vindicate regularly my first impression – a pandering liar.

It wasn’t until his taking office in 2003 as New Mexico’s governor, however, that he revealed himself to be a dictator as well. Illustrative of his hubris was his immediate move to replace his predecessor’s appointees on boards (e.g., university regents) to which they had been constitutionally appointed to constitutionally set terms. He simply demanded their resignations, then replaced them with appointees who, again on demand, signed undated letters of resignation which could be dated and “accepted” if, as and when the dictator chose for any reason whatsoever.

An early embarrassment was administered by a university student-regent, Felicia Ybarra. She refused to vote as instructed for chairman of her university’s board of regents, then, alone in a face-to-face meeting with Richardson and some of his staff, refused to resign and accept an alternative appointment. Richardson quietly tucked his tail between his legs and let the matter pass. It must be added that Ybarra was alone in the meeting because her mother, who had accompanied her on the 300-mile trip to Santa Fe from Las Cruces, was barred from the meeting and made to remain in a reception area.

It should have come as no surprise that a man whose privileged youth was spent in his mother’s native Mexico City would govern like Mexico’s infamous PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) which, with a minor interruption here or there, has exercised one-party control of that country for nearly a century. That Barack Obama selected Richardson for a Cabinet position is clear evidence that 1) pay-to-play is fine so long as you don’t get busted, or 2) his vetting operation, having missed something so obvious in Richardson’s M.O., is utterly incompetent.

Pay to-play

No major New Mexico news organization has had a sustained effort to focus light on, and critique, Richardson’s pay-to-play, his profligate spending, or his ruthlessness. However, isolated reports have appeared, such as an early one on the large campaign contributions made by individuals who later found their way into appointive positions in state government or choice boards. No new ground being plowed there, to be sure, but a hint of things to come.

Organized Labor represents practically no one in the private sector in New Mexico, and lost its legal right to represent public employees when the relevant statute “sunsetted” during the term of Richardson’s predecessor, Gary Johnson. The Legislature didn’t have the votes to override Johnson’s veto of its bill to extend. With direct contributions and indirect expenditures, Labor lavishly supported Richardson’s 2002 campaign for governor. One of its most aggressive bosses, Brian Condit, was soon the Richardson transition organization’s apparent gatekeeper for appointive positions.

Labor got its big reward by immediate restoration of its collective bargaining statute without a sunset, then card-check recognition (that is, no secret ballot elections) of two unions for bargaining units spread around the state, then combination of the bargaining units into such large and ungainly wholes that employees have no chance whatsoever of mounting successful decertification campaigns. It won again when the Richardson lackeys on the University of New Mexico board of regents put a provision in a $185 million hospital construction contract – a “project labor agreement” – to eliminate any possible cost savings through awards to non-union contractors.

Among Richardson albatrosses around New Mexico’s neck is a so-called commuter train, heavy rail no less, running about 100 miles in a corridor having fewer than a million people. A billion dollar boondoggle. Richardson obliged the Burlington Northern Santa Fe by buying and taking over about 300 miles of BNSF track that was probably more liability than asset (the 100-mile “commuter” corridor plus another 200 miles into southern Colorado). BNSF got $75 million taxpayer dollars from Richardson; tens of thousands came to Richardson’s campaign account from BNSF and affiliates.

A September 24, 2006 Albuquerque Journal article (I just found it again in three minutes on the paper’s Website) told the eye-popping story of approval by the Richardson administration of access to a major East-West limited access artery in Albuquerque for a real estate development by the family of Pete Daskalos. Access by other developers had been denied, as had access for a fire station. Soon, something like $130,000 made its way into Richardson’s campaign coffers from various Daskalos family interests. This fandango alone should have tipped Obama’s vetters, if they cared, that their man Richardson was too hot to handle.

PRI-style ruthlessness

The candidate I replaced on the ballot had been severely hampered in fund-raising on account of potential donors’ fear of retribution, reportedly including actual warnings to some. I was confident from my more than eight years’ chairing the state Republican Party and raising a great deal of money that I could get past that. Well, maybe not as it turned out.

Among my finance director’s first calls for support was to a close friend, a Republican real estate developer long prominent in the Albuquerque business community. She asked if he and his wife would host a fund-raising event. He called back promptly the following day to report that, much as he and his wife wished I could become governor, they couldn’t face the risk of Richardson’s retaliation when their name(s) showed up on public records as my supporters.

I couldn’t believe my ears when she reported this to me. So in a few days I called this friend. He not only confirmed, but reported a conversation that morning at a breakfast meeting of the Economic Forum (an association of Albuquerque business leaders) during which others had expressed the same intention: let someone else support Dendahl and bear the consequences meted out by our ruthless governor.

Ditto Hobbs in Lea County, an oil and gas producing area in the Permian Basin. Nearly all local officeholders are Republicans, and George W. Bush won decisively there in 2000 and 2004. However, I was told going in by a locally-prominent close friend that I would be able to raise zilch: reportedly, Richardson’s local enforcer and the chairman of his State Transportation Commission had the word out that economically important local activities – a horse-racing track/casino operation, a private prison, highway building and a budding uranium enrichment plant – could all be hurt by any showing of financial support for Richardson’s opponent. That well was dry.

So I went next door to Carlsbad, in Eddy County. When Richardson was in Congress, he was the single most effective opponent of a federal facility proposed in that county, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), designed to dispose of transuranic (TRU) waste produced by research and production in the Nation’s nuclear weapons program. The project was wildly popular in Eddy County, but miserably opposed by the usual anti-nuclear environmentalists in Richardson’s district hundreds of miles away around Santa Fe and Taos. Ironically, the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory near Santa Fe was one facility in need of WIPP to get rid of locally-stored TRU waste. But Richardson pandered to the enviros and lied to the rest of us: “I’m for WIPP as long as it’s 100-percent safe,” he said, knowing nothing, not even that lie, is 100-percent safe.

I had worked for years with the Carlsbad mayor and a couple of his predecessors, as well as the county’s delegation in the state Legislature, to counter the work of Richardson and his enviro allies. When I asked the mayor for help with my campaign, he acknowledged that Carlsbad owed me big time for all the WIPP help, “but I can’t put my city at risk,” Nothing coming from there.

In a community 25 miles north of Santa Fe is a prominent businessman known for damn-the-torpedoes, full-speed-ahead courage. During a visit shortly after my nomination, he pledged $10,000 to my campaign. After several weeks’ wait, a $10,000 check came in from a source entirely unknown to my campaign staff and me. I smelled a rat and called the pledgor to see if this were payment of the pledge and he said it was. I told him I wasn’t going to commit a felony (accepting a contribution from a donor with knowledge that the money came from another) and the check would be returned. Another day, another friend cowed by the specter of Richardson’s wrath.

And so it went all over the state. To be sure, there were principled, courageous people who provided generous support; however, the Richardson organization assured through brute intimidation that that would be a comparative trickle.

My wife and I now live happily near Denver. Since we moved here nearly two years ago, hardly a month has passed without news of some new or developing scandal among those ruling New Mexico, adding to the pile of vindication for our decision to move away.

It might be pointed out that, like New Mexico’s, Colorado’s recent electoral results haven’t favored my side, either. However, whether its governments trend left or right, I believe Colorado has the necessary critical mass of press and community leadership to squelch promptly the sort of corruption Richardson has made endemic throughout New Mexico. Sadly for New Mexico, formation of a similarly corrective critical mass seems light years away.

Nevadans, please fire Harry Reid

Once again, Sen. Harry Reid has overreached his elected authority and exposed his lack of moral authority in the Roland Burris issue. The people of Nevada could do a great service to our country in making sure that Harry Reid is defeated in 2010. He reportedly is concerned already about holding his seat and has begun interviewing campaign managers, while vacationing in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands recently, met with important campaign finance sources. Reid was quick to race to microphones declaring that Burris would not be seated in the Senate despite being legally appointed by Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Yesterday he commented that the Senate chooses who is seated and who is not. This morning Reid reportedly said he'd seat Burris if he promises not to run for reelection. Dick Durbin and Barack Obama have shown the same disrespect, yet today have completed flip-flopped on the issue in hopes this latest Democrat saga quickly goes away.

In the past few weeks, the Democrats from the top leadership down, thought they would quickly destroy Gov. Blago in order to ensure there were no dots connected between him and the incoming president. Why did they cave in the last several hours? They don't want to be accused of participating in a race matter, and they want to pacify Blago because they fear there is damaging info yet to come as that investigation moves forward.

Time for Nevada to assist Harry Reid in finding other work.

Colorado GOP in legislative ethics mess

The GOP ethical dustup over who would succeed House Minority Leader Mike May, now rendered moot by May deciding he will stay, makes you want to say a number of things, some of them printable. You could say that the actions of a few have brought shame on many; you could say that those involved, if found to have committed ethical violations, should be condemned in no uncertain terms; you could say that this sordid stuff is not representative of the Republican party in general, and all of that would be true. But mostly what you want to say is that this HAS to be parody.

Following an electoral defeat of the worst magnitude, a continuing decline of the party, and a skeptical public begging for change - this scandal has highlighted much of what is wrong with the party. It has opened the door for criticism of the business as usual, unethical, and dirty perception folks have of politicians.

At this particular moment in history, it is the Republican party that is seen as out of touch, uncaring and responsible for an inefficient, and ineffective - at best, government. The whole party is saddled with the failures associated with Katrina. While Democrats, in practice, are often as inept, uncaring, opportunistic and embarrassing as the Republicans have been, they have won the perception war - and now wear the mantle of change and reform and progress. This is part of the reason they swept into office here and nation wide.

To be so brazenly unethical as to attempt a trade votes for cash, and at a level so small that it would hardly make Rod Blagojevich even notice-- an out-party leadership race -- the Republicans involved (if any... we await the facts) traded the ethical upper hand for nothing. Political ethics was necessary to regaining public confidence - and that required politicians who were about the public business and not about their own interests. It may be true that the Republicans currently accused -- one House member and one lobbyist, for starters -- are true and honorable public servants, but they are not perceived as such - and they will not be either, not now.

Tactically it was stupid, politically it was ridiculous, in execution it was mismanaged and in terms of reaching out to voters and the public it was disastrous. It was everything that has killed the party in a microcosm, and just when the "brand" was beginning to recover from it's recent bout of scandals that cost it so dearly in 2006 and 2008.

Stupid.

In light of the ongoing scandal surrounding Gov. Blagojevich in Illinois, it seems clear that we have learned nothing – and in fact have thrown away a golden opportunity to stand as a party on the fundamentals of clean government and ethical reform.

This will now play out in the ethics panel created to to police the interaction of lobbyists and politicians – and anyone found complicit in this wrongdoing deserves to be publically flayed. As soon as guilt is established, party leaders and politicians should disavow the action and condemn immediately the actions of a few. This will not quickly go away. In an era where the media looks with far more scrutiny at the actions of Republicans this incident will further depress the standing – what little there was – of the Republican Party.

For Minority Leader May to have withdrawn his resignation was one sensible step to stop the bleeding -- by taking a succession struggle off the table for now -- and a laudable action on his part given the personal factors he cited earlier for a January departure from office. But much more must be done to accomplish both the reality and the perception of official Republican repudiation of this type of activity.

We are recovering from at least two elections where the soiled reputation of Republican politicians has been a drumbeat of the opposition. Already activists are calling for criminal investigations and questioning the integrity of those appointed to sort through this whole mess. To begin to connect again, with voters and restore the confidence necessary to win again, the party had to do embody integrity and ethics in government. Becoming the scandal du jour is not the way to begin.

99 golden political quotes of 2008

The year 2008 was politically the most exciting and unusual in a generation. It hosted a long, divisive and drama-filled campaign season that featured the rapid rise and fall of Rudy Guiliani, Fred Thompson and Mike Huckabee, the unlikely rise of John McCain and Barack Obama, and the eventual bitter defeat of Hillary Clinton. It brought us an unusually long and brutal primary with emotional charges of racism and sexism, the rise of the Superdelegate, and the explosion of Sarah Palin upon the national stage. All of this was followed by a rough and tumble presidential campaign whose outcome may have never been truly in doubt but was still a never ending soap opera of charges, counter charges, personal attacks, character assassinations, rumors, smears and the occasional, unexpected surprise.

2008 also also brought us a huge spike in gas prices, more political scandals, a mortgage and credit industry in a state of panic and a sitting president who was almost completely politically powerless in the face of such challenges.

Rarely does such an alignment of events occur in a single year and the resulting deluge of memorable political quotes is a goldmine for the blogger, columnist, political junkie, and all those who follow current events. Without further ado I present to you my selection of the 99 most memorable, interesting, and outrageous political quotes of 2008.

1. "The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law, and then wants us to sing God Bless America? No, no, no! Not God bless America. God damn America! It's in the Bible, for killing innocent people. God damn America for treating its citizens as less than human!" … “And they will not only attack you if you try to point out what's going on in white America, the U.S. of KKK A." – Obama’s spiritual mentor and pastor the Reverend Jeremiah Wright (actually not uttered in 2008 but replayed endlessly during the ’08 campaign)

2. “The statements that Rev. Wright made that are the cause of this controversy were not statements I personally heard him preach while I sat in the pews of Trinity or heard him utter in private conversation. When these statements first came to my attention, it was at the beginning of my presidential campaign.” – Barack Obama 3-14-08

3. “Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely – just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.” - Barack Obama 3-18-08

4. “I can no more disown (the Rev. Jeremiah Wright) than I can disown my white grandmother, a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe." – from Barack Obama’s “throwing Grandma under the bus” speech

5. “So it's not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.” – Barack Obama attempting to explain the minds of small town Pennsylvanians to rich liberals in California.

6. “The country is groaning and moaning and screaming for change.”- Bill Clinton

7. “The idea of Bill Clinton back in the White House with nothing to do is something I can’t imagine.” – Mitt Romney

8. “I can’t make her younger, taller, male, there’s a lot I can’t do.” – Bill Clinton in New Hampshire referring to differences that could not be changed between his wife, Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama.

9. "Hillary Clinton is as qualified or more qualified than I am to be vice president of the United States of America. Quite frankly, it might have been a better pick than me." - Joe Biden, speaking at a town hall meeting in Nashua, New Hampshire

10. “It did take a Clinton to clean after the first Bush and I think it might take another one to clean up after the second Bush.” - Hillary Clinton’s response when asked at a Democratic debate in Los Angeles, California on whether it was good for the country to have another Clinton in the White House

11. “I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base.” – Hillary Clinton “misstating” a trip to Bosnia where she was greeted by a friendly crowd and a small child bringing her a gift of flowers on the tarmac

12. The notion that the Clinton campaign would be trying to circulate this as a negative on the same day that Senator Clinton was giving a speech about how we repair our relationships around the world is sad.” - Barack Obama in a radio interview with WAOI in San Antonio regarding the photo on the Drudge Report showing him dressed in traditional Somali attire

13. “You know, I wish the Republicans would apologize for the disaster of the Bush-Cheney years and not run anybody, just say that it’s time for the Democrats to go back into the White House.” – Hillary Clinton in the Pennsylvania primary debate

14. “What exactly is this foreign policy expertise? Was she negotiating treaties? Was she handling crises? The answer is no. … It’s what’s wrong with politics today. Hillary Clinton will say anything to get elected. … She’ll say anything and change nothing. … The question is, what kind of judgment will you exercise when you pick up that phone … In fact, we’ve had a red-phone moment. It was the decision to invade Iraq. Sen. Clinton gave the wrong answer.” –Barack Obama during the campaign on his pick for secretary of state, Hillary Clinton

15. "No way. No how. No McCain. Barack Obama is my candidate. And he must be president." - Hillary Clinton backing Obama at the Democratic convention.

16. “Grand slam! Grand slam! Out of the ballpark, across the street. Across the buildings across the street . . . I don’t know how it could have been better. I don’t know how it could have been better.” - Keith Olbermann on Hillary Clinton’s DNC speech

17. “Generations from now we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment—when the rise of the oceans began to slow.“ - Barack Obama, June 3rd, 2008 on clenching enough delegates to ensure his victory over opponent Hillary Clinton

18. “He is The One.” – Oprah Winfrey proclamation on Barack Obama.

19. “You are the instruments that God is going to use to bring about universal change, and that is why Barack has captured the youth. And he has involved young people in a political process that they didn't care anything about. That's a sign. When the Messiah speaks, the youth will hear, and the Messiah is absolutely speaking. Brothers and sisters, Barack Obama to me, is a herald of the Messiah. Barack Obama is like the trumpet that alerts you something new, something better is on the way. A black man with a white mother became a savior to us. A black man with a white mother could turn out to be one who can lift America from her fall.” – Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan

20. “Yes we can to opportunity and prosperity. Yes we can heal this nation. Yes we can repair this world. Yes we can." – Barack Obama “Yes We Can” speech

21. “Lord - Protect my family and me. Forgive me my sins, and help me guard against pride and despair. Give me the wisdom to do what is right and just. And make me an instrument of your will.” - Barack Obama’s written prayer stuffed into a crevasse of the Western Wall in Jerusalem

22. “We are the ones that we’ve been waiting for; we are the dream that we seek. It’s a chorus that cannot be ignored, a chorus that cannot be deterred.” – Barack Obama in a speech in Chicago on Super Tuesday

23. “I’ve got two daughters. 9 years old and 6 years old. I am going to teach them first of all about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.” – Barack Obama

24. "Its part of reporting this case, this election, the feeling most people get when they hear Barack Obama's speech. My, I felt this thrill going up my leg. I mean, I don't have that too often." – MSNBC’s Chris Mathews

25. “I think there is a problem, though, with the media gushing over [Obama] too much. I don’t think he thinks that he’s all that, but the media does. I mean, the coverage after, that I was watching, from MSNBC, I mean these guys were ready to have sex with him….It’s embarrassing.” – Bill Maher

26. “Obama had been talking down to black people… I want to cut his nuts out.” -Reverend Jesse Jackson

27. “We can’t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times… and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK. That’s not leadership. That’s not going to happen.” – Barack Obama

28. ”Well, uh, you know, I think that whether you’re looking at it from a theological perspective or, uh, a scientific perspective, uh, answering that question with specificity, uh, you know, is, is, uh, above my pay grade.” – Barack Obama at the Saddleback Presidential Forum answering the question “At what point does a baby get human rights, in your view?”

29. "Over the last fifteen months, we’ve traveled to every corner of the United States. I’ve now been in 57 states, I think — one left to go. Alaska and Hawaii I was not allowed to go to … my staff could not justify it." – Barack Obama

30. “We should have every child speaking more than one language. It’s embarrassing when Europeans come over here, they all speak English, they speak French, they speak German. And then we go over to Europe and all we can say is merci beaucoup, right?” – Barack Obama at a town hall meeting in Georgia

31. “I need you to go out and talk to your friends and talk to your neighbors. I want you to talk to them whether they are independent or whether they are Republican. I want you to argue with them and get in their face.” - Barack Obama

32. “So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it’s just that it will bankrupt them because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.” – Barack Obama

33. “You know, when I was asked earlier about the issue of coal, uh, you know…Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket. Even regardless of what I say about whether coal is good or bad.” – Barack Obama

34. “I’ve got a bracelet, too.” - Barack Obama during a debate referencing his own support for the troops

35. “Obama is an immigrant” – Bill Richardson in espanol no less

36. “We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.” - Barack Obama

37. “For the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country because it feels like hope is making a comeback.”- Michelle Obama speaking about her husband’s candidacy for president.

38. “I don’t want to go on a lynching party against Michelle Obama unless there’s evidence, hard facts, that say this is how the woman really feels.” - Bill O’Reilly on his national radio show discussing comment by Michelle Obama

39. “The risk John McCain took last Friday is comparable to the 72-year-old ex-fighter pilot knocking back two shots and flying his F-16 under the Golden Gate Bridge. McCain’s choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his co-pilot was the biggest gamble in presidential history.” – Pat Buchanan

40. “[John McCain has chosen a running mate] … whose primary qualification seems to be that she hasn’t had an abortion.” – South Carolina Democratic chairwoman Carol Fowler

41. "What's the difference between a hockey mom and a pitbull? Lipstick." - US vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin at the Republican convention.

42. “John McCain says he's about change, too. That's not change. That's just calling something that's the same thing something different. You can put lipstick on a pig. It's still a pig. You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper and call it change. It's still going to stink, after eight years. We've had enough of the same old thing." –Barack Obama

43. “And I can see Russia from my house”. –Tina Fey as Sarah Palin on SNL in one of the most devastating parodies of a political candidate in modern history

44. "The most qualified? No! I think they went for this, excuse me, political bulls**t about narratives." - Peggy Noonan, former Reagan speechwriter, caught on air on MSNBC during a commercial break dissing Sarah Palin as the VP pick

45. "This is not a man who sees America like you and I see America. Our opponent is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country. Americans need to know this." - Sarah Palin, accusing Barack Obama of associating with Bill Ayers, a founder of radical Weather Underground, which was involved in several bombings in early 1970s

46. “I have a vast variety of sources where we get our news, too. Alaska isn’t a foreign country, where it’s kind of suggested, ‘wow, how could you keep in touch with what the rest of Washington, D.C., may be thinking when you live up there in Alaska?’ Believe me, Alaska is like a microcosm of America.” –Sarah Palin

47. "The nation will live to regret what the court has done today." - US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia after the court rules foreign terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay can challenge their detention in US courts.

48. "Every US President has to have a war." - Mikhail Gorbachev, former Soviet President, claiming the US military buildup risks leading to a new cold war with Russia

49. "They can examine my pulse, my urine, my stool, everything." - The Dalai Lama inviting Chinese authorities to investigate whether he was behind the rioting in Tibet

50. “Can I explain to you what happened? First of all it happened during a period after she was in remission from cancer.” - John Edwards on cheating on Elizabeth Edwards

51. "I believe [Hillary Clinton] would have won Iowa, and Clinton today would therefore have been the nominee. Our voters and Edwards' voters were the same people. They were older, pro-union. Not all, but maybe two-thirds of them would have been for us and we would have barely beaten Obama." -former Hillary Clinton Communications Director Howard Wolfson on the impact of the media's refusal to cover the John Edwards' sex scandal

52. “I'm offering myself up. I'm saying that if I have the background, the capability and the concern to do this and I'm doing this for the right reasons... but I'm not particularly interested in running for president, but I think I'd make a good president. Nowadays, the process has become much more important than I think it used to be.” – Fred Thompson

53. “Thanks, Your Holiness. Awesome speech!” – George Bush after a speech by the pope

54. "I think that, in retrospect, I could have used a different rhetoric. Phrases such as 'bring them on' or 'dead of alive' indicated to people that I was, you know, not a man of peace." – George Bush

55. "Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter." –George Bush’s parting words to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy at his final G-8 Summit, punching the air and grinning widely as the two leaders looked on in shock, Rusutsu, Japan

56. "Although we weren't able to shatter this highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it's got about 18 million cracks in it, and the light is shining through like never before." –Hillary Clinton

57. “I can’t begin this great effort without honoring the achievements of Geraldine Ferraro back in 1984, and of course, Senator Hillary Clinton who did show determination and grace in her presidential campaign. It was rightly noted in Denver this week that Hillary left 18 million cracks in the highest, hardest glass ceiling in America, but thankfully as it turns out the women of America aren’t finished yet and the voters will shatter that glass ceiling once and for all.” – Sarah Palin in Pennsylvania during her second stop on the campaign trail as the Republican vice presidential candidate

58. "If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept." – former vice-presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro

59. "I have to tell you that what I find is offensive is that everytime somebody says something about the campaign, you're accused of being racist. Any time anybody does anything that in any way pulls this campaign down and says let's address reality and the problems we're facing in this world, you're accused of being racist, so you have to shut up. Racism works in two different directions. I really think they're attacking me because I'm white. How's that?' – Geraldine Ferraro enjoying the tolerance of the Democratic party

60. If there are allegations based on questions or comments that I made in debate prep about NAFTA, and about the continent vs. the country when we talk about Africa there, then those were taken out of context. That’s cruel, It’s mean-spirited. It’s immature. It’s unprofessional and those guys are jerks if they came away with it, taking things out of context and then tried to spread something on national news. It’s not fair, and it’s not right.” -Alaskan Governor and former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin on whether or not she thought Africa was a “country”

61. "I'm like, OK, God, if there is an open door for me somewhere, this is what I always pray, I'm like, don't let me miss the open door. Show me where the open door is. Even if it’s cracked up a little bit, maybe I’ll plough right on through that and maybe prematurely plough through it, but don’t let me miss an open door.” - Sarah Palin on running for president in 2012

62. “John McCain calls himself a maverick, but he votes with George Bush

90 percent of the time. That’s not a maverick. That’s a sidekick.” - Senator Robert Casey Jr. in a speech at the Democratic National Convention

63. "Maybe a hundred...That would be fine with me." - John McCain, to a questioner who asked if he supported President Bush's vision for keeping U.S. troops in Iraq for 50 years, Derry, New Hampshire, Jan. 3, 2008

64. “That wrinkly white-haired guy used me in his campaign ad, which I guess means I’m running for president. So thanks for the endorsement, white-haired dude, and I want America to know I’m, like, totally ready to lead.” – Paris Hilton responding to John McCain’s ad comparing her to Barack Obama

65. "I think if you're just talking about income, how about $5 million?" - John McCain, after being asked by Rev. Rick Warren to define "rich," Lake Forest, California, Aug. 16, 2008

66. "I think -- I'll have my staff get to you. Its condominiums where -- I'll have them get to you." --John McCain after being asked how many houses he and his wife, Cindy, own, interview with Politico, Las Cruces, N.M.

67. “I had the courage and the judgment to say I would rather lose a political campaign than lose a war. It seems to me that Obama would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign.” -John McCain discussing his support of the Iraq troop surge at a town hall meeting in Rochester, New Hampshire

68. “I don’t think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president.” - General Wesley Clark on Face the Nation questioning John McCain’s experience to be president

69. “Our enemies will test the new president early. Remember that the truck bombing of the World Trade Center happened in the first year of the Clinton administration. 9/11 happened in the first year of the Bush administration.” – Senator Joe Lieberman on Face the Nation describing why he thought John McCain would be better prepared in January 2009 to lead the nation

70. “I think it’s very clear who Hamas wants to be the next president of the United States.” – John McCain in a conference call with bloggers discussing an endorsement of Barack Obama by Ahmed Yousef, chief political adviser to the Prime Minister of Hamas

71. “That old Beach Boys song, Bomb Iran… bomb, bomb, bomb.” – John McCain at a town hall meeting in South Carolina singing Bomb Iran to the tune of Barbara Ann in response to a question about possible military action in Iran

72. “There was unqualified people in charge, there was a total misreading of the dimensions of the disaster, there was a failure of communications.” - John McCain standing in New Orleans discussing a list of mistakes made by the White House in response to the Hurricane Katrina Disaster

73. “It may be typical of the pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons crowd to disparage a fellow countryman’s memory of war from the comfort of mom’s basement, but most Americans have the humility and gratitude to respect and learn from the memories of men who suffered on behalf of others.” – McCain spokesman Michael Goldfarb

74. “The court got this one right—but only by a 5-4 decision. Citizens of the United States of America [darn] near lost a critical God-given legal right to self-defense by one stinking vote. … Thanks to these three Supreme Court decisions, many conservatives may now feel compelled to return to the GOP flock, hold their noses REAL tight, and vote for John McCain in November.” – political consultant Chuck Muth

75. “This election is not about issues, this election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates.” - Rick Davis, McCain campaign manager

76. “This is getting close to the atmosphere stoked by the Israeli far right before the assassination of Rabin. For God’s sake, McCain, stop it. For once in this campaign, put your country first” – an apparently hysterical Andrew Sullivan

77. “If you want to know where Al Qaeda lives, you want to know where Bin Laden is, come back to Afghanistan with me. Come back to the area where my helicopter was forced down, with a three-star general and three senators at 10,500 feet in the middle of those mountains. I can tell you where they are.” - Joe Biden, addressing the National Guard about the time his helicopter had to make a landing due to a sudden snowstorm

78. “Mark my words.It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We’re about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here if you don’t remember anything else I said. Watch, we’re gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.” – Joe Biden

79. “Joe Biden wasn’t even on Barack Obama’s short list until August 7, when Russia suddenly invaded the neighboring country of Georgia. That’s the word from key Democrats meeting here in Denver who say the Obama campaign’s need to shore up its foreign policy bona fides helped push the Delaware senator to the top of the pack. ‘We didn’t pick our nominee. Vladimir Putin did,’ is how one Democrat, who professes to be pleased with the Biden choice, put it.” – Wall Street Journal columnist John Fund

80. "Stand up, Chuck, let 'em see ya." –-Joe Biden, to Missouri state Sen. Chuck Graham, who is in a wheelchair, Columbia, Missouri

81. “Tomorrow morning, I will suspend my campaign and return to Washington after speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative…I am directing my campaign to work with the Obama campaign and the commission on presidential debates to delay Friday night's debate until we have taken action to address this crisis.” – John McCain’s confusing campaign tactic regarding the Wall Street Bailout

82. "Wall Street got drunk and now it's got a hangover. And the question is how long will it sober up and not try to do those fancy financial instruments?" - George Bush's analysis of America's financial services meltdown

83. “I’ve abandoned free-market principles to save the free-market system to make sure the economy doesn’t collapse.” – President George Bush on corporate bailouts

84. "It's not based on any particular data point, we just wanted to choose a really large number." - Treasury Department spokeswoman explaining how the $700 billion number was chosen for the US bailout, quoted on Forbes.com.

85. “Just because God created the world in seven days doesn’t mean we have to pass this bill in seven days.” - Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas on the bailout

86. "It's almost like seeing a guy show up at the soup kitchen in high hat and tuxedo. It kind of makes you a little bit suspicious." - Congressman Gary Ackerman, on the big three carmakers arriving in a private jet to beg the government for financial aid.

87. “I’m here to tell you, if either of these two guys [Huckabee or McCain]

get the nomination, it’s going to destroy the Republican Party, it’s going to change it forever, be the end of it.” - Rush Limbaugh on his radio show, January 15, 2008

88. “I need to know if she really thinks dinosaurs were here 4,000 years ago….I want to know that, I really do, because she’s going to have the nuclear codes.” - Celebrity Matt Damon attempting to make a point and showing his ignorance of the role and power of the vice president

89. "That was Barack Obama. He just tripped off a chair. He's getting ready to speak and somebody aimed a gun at him and he -- he dove for the floor." – Mike Huckabee after his speech to the National Rifle Association was interrupted by a loud noise

90. “It tastes like squirrel.” – Mike Huckabee on what squirrel tastes like

91. “It was the most memorable time of my life. It was a touching moment because I never thought this day would ever happen. I won’t have to worry about putting gas in my car. I won’t have to worry about paying my mortgage. You know, if I help him, he’s gonna help me.” – Obama supporter Peggy Joseph at an Obama rally

92. “And guess what this liberal would be all about. This liberal will be about socializing…uh, um... would be about, basically, taking over, and the government running all of your companies.” – Congresswoman Maxine Waters sharing her vision of free market principles if the oil companies didn’t lower prices

93. “Many of the indices for the GOP are dreadful, especially that they lost the vote of two-thirds of those aged 18 to 29. They lost a generation! If that continues in coming years, it will be a rolling wave of doom.” – Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan

94. “If you believe the left is tolerant, open-minded and democratic, you’re in for a rude awakening.” – columnist David Limbaugh

95. “In response to skyrocketing gas prices, liberals say, practically in unison, ‘We can’t drill our way out of this crisis.’ What does that mean? This is like telling a starving man, ‘You can’t eat your way out of being hungry!’ ‘You can’t water your way out of drought!’ ‘You can’t sleep your way out of tiredness!’ ‘You can’t drink yourself out of dehydration!’ Seriously, what does it mean? Finding more oil isn’t going to increase the supply of oil? It is the typical Democratic strategy to babble meaningless slogans, as if they have a plan. Their plan is: the permanent twilight of the human race.” – Ann Coulter

96. “They would prefer it if I would simply distance myself from my religion, say that it is more a tradition than my personal conviction, or disavow one or another of its precepts. That I will not do. I believe in my Mormon faith and I endeavor to live by it. My faith is the faith of my fathers. I will be true to them and to my beliefs.” – Mitt Romney from his “Faith in America” speech

97. "The conduct would make Lincoln roll over in his grave." -- Patrick Fitzgerald, attorney in Chicago, as Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich is accused of trying to auction Barack Obama's senate seat in return for favors

98. ”I had no contact with the governor or his office and so we were not, I was not aware of what was happening.” – Barack Obama, friend and ally of Gov. Blagojevich

99. "I should say if anybody wants to tape my conversations, go right ahead, feel free to do it. I appreciate anybody who wants to tape me openly and notoriously. Those who feel like they want to sneakily and wear taping devices, I would remind them that it kind of smells like Nixon and Watergate." – Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich the Monday before his arrest on corruption charges

David Huntwork is a conservative activist and freelance columnist in Northern Colorado, where he lives with his wife and three daughters. You may view his bio and past columns at http://DavidHuntwork.tripod.com.