The President is replacing the rule of law with the rule of Obama. The President swore an oath on the Bible to ensure that the laws be faithfully executed, not to decide which laws are and which are not constitutional.

— Newt Gingrich, on yesterday’s decision not to defend the Defense of Marriage Act in court.

The poll came out, and we’re in a virtual tie and I haven’t campaigned … I’m not really, despite that, that surprised, because it’s a message of common sense. We can have a great country again, the problem is we don’t have the right leadership. We don’t have the right leaders. We don’t have people that have any semblance of negotiation.

— Said Mr. “You’re Fired!” Donald Trump on CNN, claiming he wasn’t at all surprised by a new poll that showed him in a virtual dead heat with President Obama in a hypothetical 2012 presidential race.

There are some people who are willing to stand up and fight for the family and others who would rather, to use the comment of one potential candidate, call a truce on these things.

— Rick Santorum, quoted by the Des Moines Register, taking a shot at Indiana Mitch Daniels’ call for a “truce on social issues.”

Most people out there think this is a joke — that I’m doing this for publicity. Imagine what happens the day I announce I am actually running for president.

— Donald Trump, in a conversation with Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough.

OK, now the speculators have gone too far —
Basing their speculations on cant and rumor.
Oil prices got hinky
And started to sinky
On word that they’d shot old Muammar.

When the Obama administration announced this week that the Executive Branch would no longer defend the so-called Defense of Marriage Act at trial, they effectively lobbed the ball into Speaker John Boehner’s court. It will be up to the Legislative Branch, which is to say Boehner and his tea party bosses in Congress, to defend [...]

2%

The amount gross domestic product would fall if the spending cuts passed last week by the Republican-led House of Representatives were implemented, according to a confidential Goldman Sachs report.

The only thing that I’ve heard is if you take a plastic bottle and put it in the microwave and you heat it up, it gives off a chemical similar to estrogen. So the worst case is some women may have little beards.

— Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R), quoted by the Bangor Daily News, arguing there “hasn’t been any science” that suggests a problem with the chemical bisphenol A (BPA), and apparently confusing the female hormone estrogen with the male hormone testosterone.

65%

Of the Republican operatives surveyed in a new National Journal Political Insiders Poll believe that it isn’t in their party’s interest to see a government shutdown, while most Democrats feel such a confrontation could benefit them.

If American workers are being denied their right to organize when I’m in the White House, I will put on a comfortable pair of shoes and I will walk on that picket line with you as president of the United States.

— Barack Obama, quoted by Slate, while making a campaign speech in 2007.