In their words
“This is not a group of people who have been picked up off the street and sent off to war.”
– Maj. Gen. Lawrence Johnson, attesting to the professionalism of 60 Army Reservists from Spokane and North Idaho who are being dispatched to Iraq.
“On the Democratic side of things, it’s an ace in the hole. It’s a good wedge issue and a good base issue that appeals to crossover Republicans.”
– Independent pollster John Zogby, calculating the political ramifications in this fall’s congressional elections from President Bush’s veto of a stem cell research bill approved by a bipartisan majority in the Senate.
“I like this from the recruiting aspect. You know some of those kids are looking at us thinking, ‘That’s cool.’ Maybe it will put the bug in their ear to stay out of trouble so they can do what we do some day.”
– Washington State Patrol Trooper Mark Baker, one of the law enforcement officers participating in a motorcade practice that attracted onlookers Wednesday in Spokane.
“The University of Washington tends to cast a large shadow.”
– Brian Spraggins, director of recruitment and admissions at Spokane Community College, suggesting that a decline in community college students planning to transfer to four-year universities may be due to the University of Washington’s announcement that it would stop accepting such transfers.
“We are making an all-out assault on the Constitution of the United States which, thank God, will fail.”
– House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., criticizing the vote by which the House approved a measure to prevent federal courts from ruling on whether the words “in God we trust” may remain in the Pledge of Allegiance.
“It might be a little over-usage of funds, but it’s not Enron.”
– Orchard Center Elementary School parent Serenity Tremblay, defending the West Valley School Board, which has spent $8,300 since September 2003 on board retreats and special meetings, some of the meals including $60 lobster tails.
“It wasn’t pleasant. I had to go.”
– 26-year-old Dustin Creighton, one of 18 people stranded for two hours on the Riverfront Park gondola ride after a malfunction brought it to a halt Wednesday evening.
“For too long my party wrote off the African American vote, and many African Americans wrote off the Republican Party.”
– President George Bush, addressing the NAACP for the first time since taking office.
“We can’t risk having even one person die because they didn’t have good information.”
– Spokane Regional Health District spokeswoman Julie Graham, fearful that a heat wave will put low-income elderly people in serious danger if they shun air conditioning because of the cost.
“Everybody loves somebody who takes on evil and defeats it.”
– Jane Spillane, suggesting a reason for the popularity of her late husband Mickey’s detective novels about fictional private eye Mike Hammer.