Quotes of the Morning: The Return of Skippy

“The Post: Will you talk to Senate Democrats about your privatization plan?
THE PRESIDENT: You mean, the personal savings accounts?
The Post: Yes, exactly. Scott has been --
THE PRESIDENT: We don't want to be editorializing, at least in the questions.
The Post: You used partial privatization yourself last year, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes?
The Post: Yes, three times in one sentence. We had to figure this out, because we're in an argument with the RNC [Republican National Committee] about how we should actually word this. [Post staff writer] Mike Allen, the industrious Mike Allen, found it.
THE PRESIDENT: Allen did what now?
The Post: You used partial privatization.
THE PRESIDENT: I did, personally?
The Post: Right.
THE PRESIDENT: When?
The Post: To describe it.
THE PRESIDENT: When, when was it?
The Post: Mike said it was right around the election.
THE PRESIDENT: Seriously?
The Post: It was right around the election. We'll send it over.
THE PRESIDENT: I'm surprised. Maybe I did. It's amazing what happens when you're tired. Anyway, your question was? I'm sorry for interrupting.”
-Interview between George ‘Dubya’ Bush and the Washington Post, January 14, 2004

“Vice President Dick Cheney said Thursday that he overestimated the pace of Iraq's recovery from the U.S.-led invasion because he didn't realize the lasting devastation wrought by Saddam Hussein on his people after the first Gulf War.
Asked to name his mistakes in planning the war in Iraq, Cheney said he had not anticipated how long it would take the Iraqis to begin running their own country. Not until after Saddam was ousted did the United States realize the extent of the Iraqi leader's brutality in putting down revolt in 1991, Cheney said.
‘I think the hundreds of thousands of people who were slaughtered at the time, including anybody who had the gumption to stand up and challenge him, made the situation tougher than I would have thought,’ he said on ‘The Don Imus Show’ on the radio.
‘I would chalk that one up as a miscalculation, where I thought things would have recovered more quickly,’ Cheney said.”
-Associated Press, January 20, 2005

“Ok, so here is how it works. We invaded Iraq because Saddam had weapons of mass destruction.. um.. I mean as a humanitarian mission to rescue Iraqis from a brutal dictator. Then, the reconstruction of the country after we took over hasn’t gone so well because.. wait for it.. Saddam was a brutal dictator. That’s right, we are justifying the invasion using exactly the same thing that we claim that we didn’t know about. Mr. Cheney also discussed the 1991 revolt and the purge that happened because of it. As you may remember, that revolt happened when the United States encouraged the people into an uprising following the Gulf War, and then the U.S. left them hanging when the crackdowns came. Charming.”
-Skippy

“The number two Pentagon official said reducing American casualties in Iraq was more important than bringing US troops back home -- and pointed to the rising Iraqi death toll as evidence this strategy was working.
‘I'm more concerned about bringing down our casualties than bringing down our numbers,’ Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said in an interview with PBS television's ‘The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer’ program. ‘And it is worth saying that since June 1, there have been more Iraqi police and military killed in action than Americans.’
Wolfowitz said he was encouraged by the fact that Iraqis continued to volunteer to join the country's fledgling security forces, despite their losses at the hands of Islamist insurgents.
The number of Iraqi troops and police officers being trained by the US military has now reached 120,000, according to the deputy defense secretary.
But he acknowledged ‘there are problems in the quality’ of the Iraqi recruits, who he said have a tendency to disappear from their units without permission.”
-AFP, January 20, 2005

“Yep, in a nation currently suffering about 60% unemployment, it sure is great that we can still find recruits as cannon fodder.”
-Skippy

"On a complicated matter such as removing a dictator from power and trying to help achieve democracy, sometimes the unexpected will happen, both good and bad. I am realistic about how quickly a society that has been dominated by a tyrant can become a democracy. . . . I am more patient than some."
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, January 14, 2005

“There is a tragic flaw in our precious Constitution, and I don’t know what can be done to fix it. This is it: Only nut cases want to be president.”
-Kurt Vonnegut (1922 - ), "Cold Turkey", In These Times, May 10, 2004