“I’m not going to second-guess a member when he says he can’t find a room at the per diem rate.”

– Former deputy chief House clerk Bill Wegelben, explaining why he authorized the $332-a-night Davenport Hotel room rate racked up by then-Rep. Richard Curtis, who said he couldn’t find anything cheaper during the highly publicized Spokane stay that resulted in his resignation last month.

“I’m not a fearful person, on stage or in my books or anywhere else, so I was nearly debilitated by my fear. I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to finish the book.”

– Spokane-area author Sherman Alexie, describing his reluctance to write a first-person treatment of his own life in “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” this year’s National Book Award winner in the young people’s literature category.

“I think you’re apt to get the death penalty based more upon the quality of your attorney than based upon your guilt or the kind of murder that was committed.”

– Jack van Valkenburgh, head of the Idaho American Civil Liberties Union, saying Joseph Duncan’s upcoming federal murder trial is an appropriate case to challenge the fairness and constitutionality of capital punishment.

“We do people in their 80s all the time. We do people in their 90s, and it’s more rare. People at 100? It’s pretty rare.”

– Spokane surgeon Leland Siwek, after replacing two heart valves on centenarian Richard T. Hubbard, who looks forward to having enough renewed energy to go bowling again.

“I’d be afraid to see him. Nobody knows what he’ll be like after all these years.”

– Milwaukee resident Roger Bremer, younger brother of 57-year-old Arthur Bremer, who was released from prison this month after more than 30 years behind bars for the 1972 assassination attempt that left then-presidential candidate George Wallace paralyzed.

“I condemned them when they were swift boat ads. I condemn them now.”

– U.S. Sen John McCain, R-Ariz., in a denunciation of political ads run on behalf of his presidential campaign but paid for by undisclosed, independent sources.

“Until you have the poison of drug addiction come into your family, it’s really easy to be theoretical.”

– Christian activist Dennis Mansfield, who concedes he once would have objected to the treatment home he operates in a Nampa, Idaho, neighborhood for released drug offenders, but whose attitude changed because of his son’s heroin addiction.

“I’m half Jewish. I knew there was bigotry against Jews, but I didn’t realize there was bigotry against Latter-day Saints.”

– New Hampshire voter Miriam Case, a 42-year member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, saying it’s unfair that Mormon presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s religious faith is a campaign issue.

“We don’t need air conditioning in the Black Hawks, so we didn’t think it would be an issue. But when we got the helicopter into the desert, we realized it was a problem.”

– Army spokesman Maj. Tom McCuin, explaining why the Pentagon will probably have to spend $10 million or more retrofitting $6.2 billion worth of European-made helicopters that turned out to be unsafe to fly in hot weather after air conditioning was left off to save weight.