Carney, Mauro, Cook, White, Dalglish, Thompson, and Bush

Dave Carney, campaign manager for Rick Perry, telling The Dallas Morning News that new voters are welcome in the GOP: "But that doesn't mean you take your principles and throw them out the door and become a whorehouse and let anybody in who wants to come in, regardless."

Former Land Commissioner Garry Mauro, a Democrat, talking about Gov. Rick Perry in the Los Angeles Times: "The simple thing to say is this guy is a right-wing nut who shouldn't be taken seriously. Anybody who's doing that is making a horrible mistake."

Political analyst Charlie Cook, quoted by The Dallas Morning News: "Kay Bailey Hutchison is a very rational, normal, well-adjusted person. I'm just not sure any degree of moderation substantively or stylistically is necessarily a good thing in a Republican primary in Texas."

Houston Mayor and U.S. Senate candidate Bill White, joking about suspending his last campaign to deal with hurricanes and how it underscored his legendary speaking prowess: "When I don't go around campaigning, people vote for me."

Lucy Dalglish with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, talking to the Austin American-Statesman about a court ruling involving conversations between members of the Alpine City Council: "The 5th Circuit said public officials' rights to meet secretly may trump your right to know what they are up to. I just think this decision is cracked and stupid and offensive. We don't allow secret meetings in this country except under very special circumstances."

Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, quoted in the Houston Chronicle on her vote against a windstorm insurance bill being fast-tracked on deadline: "I'm not trying to slow the process down, but don't I have a right to read this stuff?"

Former First Lady Laura Bush, quoted by The Dallas Morning News telling SMU graduates that she had to go back and look up the name of the person who spoke at her own graduation ceremony: "You can imagine my surprise when I discovered it was George [H.W.] Bush."