Line of the Night

"Barack Obama is going to fill an NFL stadium and John McCain is going to try to compete with one. Not very smart."

---Steve McMahon, Democratic strategist on MSNBC's Hardball, reacting to the scheduling of the Republican National Convention in September. McCain is slated to speak opposite the kick-off of the 2008-09 NFL season.

Line of the Day

“I can tell you, there are very few people who are closer to me, who I have relied on more for counsel or advice. Should I be successful in this campaign, she will be somebody who has the utmost access to the Obama administration.”

--Sen. Barack Obama, on Sen. Claire McCaskill, in today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Line of the Day

"She must be talking to more people than I am... We'd like to have our say before the superdelegates weigh in, and I know our neighbors in Kentucky feel the same way."

---Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh, a Hillary Clinton supporter, reacting to Sen. Claire McCaskill's claim that a majority of the superdelegates in Congress have decided to back Obama.

Line of the Day

"If you can't beat a guy like this in a year like this, with a vastly unpopular Republican war still ongoing and a Republican recession looming, what precisely is the point of you?"

---Journalist John Heilemann in New York magazine writing about the relevancy of the Democratic Party if it loses to John McCain in November. His April piece is entitled "Is John McCain Bob Dole?"

Line of the Day

"For me, it's like being Hillary Clinton. If it weren't for Barack Obama, it would have been a very good year."

---George Clooney, talking to Time magazine about his chances of winning the Best Actor Oscar this Sunday. Clooney said he believes the Oscar will probably go to Daniel Day-Lewis.

Line of the Day

"Hey buddy, how's it going?"

---President George W. Bush, to Barack Obama after the State of the Union address, as reported by The Hill.

Line of the Night

“I know something about tailspins, and it’s pretty clear Mitt Romney is in one."

---Republican presidential candidate John McCain Wednesday, responding to rival Mitt Romney's charge that McCain's position on immigration has been inconsistent.

Line of the Night

"Don't tell Chris Shays I said that."

---Rep. Roy Blunt, on a possible strategy in 2008 to pick up enough seats to take back control of the U.S. House of Representatives. Blunt suggested to CQ Politics the G.O.P. could pick up 24 swing district seats held currently by Democrats, without retaining eight of their own to regain the majority. Shays is consistently one of the most vulnerable Republicans in the country due to his mixed district. It should be noted Blunt said this statement with a laugh, as reported by CQ.

Line of the Day

"He is a unique and weird combination of street-brawler and professor.”

---Sen. Claire McCaskill, on close friend and Senate colleague Jim Webb, in a Politico profile

Line of the Day

"Does anyone else see the parallels between this year's BCS and the GOP race? No one seems to want to be No. 1. But, eventually, someone has to play for the title -- er -- nomination. Before this year, no two-loss team had been in the national title game. If there is any candidate that looks like a two-loss team, it's McCain."

---NBC Political Director Chuck Todd, comparing the fluid Republican race for president to the muddled college football national championship picture, on MSNBC's First Read

Line of the Night

"Our people look like caucus-goers. His people look like they are 18 . . . they look like Facebook."

---Mandy Grunwald, senior advisor to Hillary Clinton's campaign for President, commenting on Barack Obama's estimated 3,000 supporters who showed up for the Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner in Des Moines Saturday night, as reported by The Politico. The event is a crucial test of campaign organization and machinery just 50-some days before the Iowa Caucuses. Although speaking after midnight, Obama's speech received rave reviews from big-foot pundits, like David Yepsen of the Des Moines Register.

Line of the Night

"Hillary Clinton . . . 60 year's old yesterday . . . They brought out a cake. She closed her eyes, blew out the candles. And Monica Lewinsky died."

---Bill Maher, on this week's HBO's Real Time

Line of the Day

"You just look at the dynamics and you have to say the odds are probably 80-20."

---Former G.O.P. House Speaker and potential presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, on the odds that a Democrat will win the White House in 2008.

Line of the Night

"If you've read the paper lately, you know I'm probably at my best under sedation."

---Former Attorney General John Ashcroft at Missouri State University tonight, referring to reports that he rejected attempts by then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales to change a domestic surveillance program during his hospitalization.

Line of the Night

"There is not the documentation available to show the general public that this couldn’t happen again."

--- Sen. Claire McCaskill, reacting to a 320-page government report reviewing emergency preparedness and responsiveness in light of the failures during Hurricane Katrina

Line of the Night

"That to me is an omen, when the Republicans are in the one state where the bridge fell down and one of their Senators gets caught in the men's room."

--HBO's Bill Maher on why the Republicans choice of Minneapolis to host the 2008 convention, might be a good sign for the Democrats

Line of the Night

"The Giuliani-Clinton match-up in the NBC-Wall Street Journal poll nationally in the Iowa caucuses a week before may matter more than the standing of Giuliani in the actual caucus. If he's up 10 points and Romney's down 10 points to Clinton, Giuliani's going to be the nominee."

-- NBC Political Director Chuck Todd, on CNBC's Tim Russert, assessing how electability will play a big factor in Iowa for the Republican nomination.

Line of the Night

“We had two fish and five loaves and it fed 5,000."


--Mike Huckabee, after his surprise 2nd place finish in the Ames, Iowa Republican Presidential Straw Poll.

Line of the Day

"The president has signed virtually nothing because virtually nothing has gotten to his desk."

--Rep. Roy Blunt, commenting on what Congress has accomplished in the first seven months of this legislative session.

I Don't Get It

The Missouri Republican Party has pounced on remarks Jay Nixon made in front of the Missouri Sheriff's Association.

Here's what Nixon said:

"You don't find any of our great state troopers spending much time on anything that's got gravel on it, certainly not anything that runs through a stream directly without going over it. You might have to take an hour off and re-clean our cars."