Rich Galen Quotations

If any Democrat campaigns against them by saying they are Bush clones, they can say, 'Oh yeah? What about the Dubai ports deal? For most members, they have established as much distance from the president as they need.

Having their fingers burned, they're being more active in making sure the Hill knows.

Republicans regard Dean as one of their best secret weapons, I have yet to find a Democrat who, in private chatter, doesn't think he's a problem for them.

That entire doctrine has come and gone. Now the doctrine is you respond instantaneously, and where possible with a strong counterattack. A lot of that is because of the Internet, a lot of that is because of cable TV news.

What it reminded me of the other day is 'Baghdad Bob' saying there are no Americans at the airport.

What is so frustrating is that this is a problem of their own making. I have no idea why they didn't see the politics of this.

The president is bristling because he finds it hard to believe that anybody, especially his own allies, believe that for one second he would do anything to harm American security. Hopefully, calmer heads will prevail and events will transpire that let everybody climb back from the ledge. But they better climb back pretty fast.

I've been hoping for a year that he had hit bottom and was moving up. But the bottom kept moving.

Departments didn't talk to departments, agencies didn't talk to agencies, and then, once the news reached the White House, the White House didn't think to talk to Congress. It's almost unprecedented.

It just sounds like it was amateur hour.

I'm surprised it's not even worse, ... beginning to scratch their heads.

If the president vetoes it, I believe based on my e-mails from members of Congress the veto will be overridden.

He's learned that the election is over - and now he's free to acknowledge that course change doesn't necessarily mean a mistake.

...If Forbes gets out of the race this week, it will make McCain's hill a bit steeper to climb in South Carolina,

I certainly hope this is as bad as it gets. I hope this is the nadir of the last three months.

If the American press corps were as concerned about the Tenth Amendment as it has been protecting the First and trying to get rid of the Second, this would be a far different country.

Obama hasn't shown the leadership that has allowed the center to go towards him. He's got his base now after the stimulus bill, after the latest jobs plan, but he doesn't have the center. The center is wide open.

You dont have to be a political genius to sniff the smell of blood in the water.

I would be surprised to see the White House scaling back on anything. That would be an admission they are operating from a position of weakness.

The [Elian] raid... was almost worth it, if only to watch Jesse Jackson...defending an armed pre-dawn raid by the US government on a minority household.

Democracy is messy. It is messy whether you've been doing it since 1789 or whether you're going to do it for the first time in 2005. The trouble with Democracy is, you hold elections. The trouble with dictatorships is...you don't.