Quotes & amp;amp; Notes

by Inlander Staff


Takes One to Know One -- "When I was younger, almost all Baptists were strongly committed on a theological basis to the separation of church and state. It was only 25 years ago when there began to be a melding of the Republican Party with fundamentalist Christianity... This is a fairly new development, and I think it was brought about by the abandonment of some of the basic principles of Christianity. First of all, we worship the prince of peace, not war. And those of us who have advocated for the resolution of international conflict in a peaceful fashion are looked upon as being unpatriotic, branded that way by right-wing religious groups, the Bush administration, and other Republicans."


-- Jimmy Carter, the first evangelical Christian to become president, from an interview in American Prospect





TGIM -- "Thank God it's Monday." -- Jim West, reciting his new motto as he marked his first 100 days as mayor of Spokane





$20 billion -- That's how much noted economist David Rosenberg told CNN would be the cost to American consumers due to the 24 & cent; increase in gasoline prices since January. Rosenberg pointed out that those costs appear to wipe out half of the money George W. Bush was hoping to put back in consumers' pockets via tax cuts for 2004. Or think of it this way, as the Wall Street Journal has calculated: Every extra penny in gas prices translates into about another $1 billion in consumer fuel spending a year.





$45 million -- That's how much money the Bush-Cheney Campaign has spent on TV ads since March. The race has already been notable for "going negative" earlier than any other presidential race, and now it's made history again. To put that number in perspective, the Los Angeles Times has reported that it's already about as much as past presidential campaigns have spent in an entire election cycle. The money doesn't seem to be buying much, however, as President Bush's overall approval rating is just above 50 percent, according to a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll.





Huh? -- "Once you've got Baghdad, it's not clear what you do with it. It's not clear what kind of government you would put in place of the one that's currently there... How much credibility is that government going to have if it's set up by the United States military when it's there? I think to have American military forces engaged in a civil war inside Iraq would fit the definition of quagmire, and we have absolutely no desire to get bogged down in that fashion."


-- Dick Cheney, commenting as Defense Secretary in 1991





Publication date: 04/22/04