“I am a man who studied the law, and I ask you how you should call upon a president elected by the people and put him on trial by a law he issued himself.”

— Saddam Hussein, former president of Iraq, after being brought into a Baghdad courtroom to hear the charges on which he will be tried by an Iraqi court.

“I think the Iraqis realize this is their country, and they are going to have to secure it.”

— Army Capt. Kevin Hanrahan, commander of the 127th Military Police Company, describing how the handover of sovereignty has increased seriousness on the part of Iraqi police who patrol Baghdad streets with his GIs.

“The Iraqi people have their country back.”

— President Bush on the Monday handover.

“No one has a carte blanche right to go out and blow the hell out of everything and put people into danger.”

— Bob Smith, director of the Fernan Rod and Gun Club in North Idaho, commenting on a now-closed firing range where safety and litter had become problems.

“Too often presidents do things that don’t end up helping the people they should be helping, and their staffs won’t tell them their actions stink on ice.”

— Former U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., explaining why he wouldn’t have voted for President Bush’s tax cut.

“Now that my husband is working and selling his book, we are actually in that category of people favored by the Bush administration. Can you beat that?”

— U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York campaigning in Seattle on behalf of Democratic U.S. Sen. Patty Murray of Washington.

“Our whole system is based on people not lying to the grand jury.”

— U.S. District Court Judge Robert Whaley, sentencing former criminal justice professor Bernadette F. Olson to prison for lying to a deputy U.S. marshall and a federal grand jury to protect fugitive Fred Russell.

“Just got tired of seeing little kids hurt or killed.”

— Spokane Police Officer Kim Thomas, who received the Police Department’s Medal of Merit in recognition of his service, including his role in getting a city ordinance requiring bicycle riders and skateboards to wear protective helmets.

“There is not the slightest indication that Alan Greenspan is going to behave like a lame duck, although technically he is one.”

— Economist David Jones, in expectation that the Federal Reserve Board would raise interest rates for the first time in 14 years, under the leadership of Greenspan who is expected to step down as chairman in January 2006.