In their words …

“I wanted the citizens of Spokane to have a voice, and they have a voice now; they can put their name on the petition or not.”

— Shannon Sullivan, the day after a ruling by the Washington state Supreme Court allowed her to begin collecting signatures in her drive to recall Spokane Mayor Jim West

“Guess what? He’s going to find a Cindy Sheehan in every community across the United States.”

— Protester Laura McCarthy, whose son is an Idaho National Guardsman serving in Iraq, speaking to an antiwar crowd that demonstrated when President Bush arrived in Idaho last week

“It means a lot. It helps me feel like we were recognized for what we’ve done.”

— Washington National Guard Pfc. Andrew Bowers, a graduate of Shadle Park High School, at a ceremony honoring Guard members and their families for their service

“In simple terms, the military value model was rigged.”

— U.S. Sen. John Warner, a Virginia Republican and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, accusing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld of using the base-closure process to advance real estate objectives rather than military efficiency

“Some may consider a high school diploma just a piece of paper, but it’s a symbol to me.”

— Belated high school graduate Takashi Hoshizaki, whose diploma from Belmont (Calif.) High School was delayed more than 61 years because he and his Japanese-American family were relocated to an internment camp in Wyoming during World War II

“By any standard, when you analyze 2½ years in Iraq … we’re not winning.”

— Vietnam combat veteran and U.S. Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., telling a national television audience that the conflict in the Middle East is looking increasingly as mired-down as the earlier one in Southeast Asia

“If you and Mr. Strom feel that it is in the best interest to go to the press and attempt to generate negative publicity, then you should by all means do so.”

— Idaho Deputy Attorney General Stephanie A. Altig, in a letter to the attorney for former state trooper Brad Strom, who wants the state to pay a $19,000 hospital bill that he incurred as a result of excessive drinking, at the state’s request, for a training exercise

“Bad guys take vacations, too.”

— Patrol captain Ginger Swisher of the Idaho Panhandle National Forests, commenting on the need for law-enforcement officers to patrol federal forest land