Notably Quotable: “Looking at impeachment, what he did, for sure, is survey the situation and understood that with this action…”

“Looking at impeachment, what he did, for sure, is survey the situation and understood that with this action, with this strike, that he would create a giant smokescreen that clouds and distracts around the issue of impeachment,” he suggested. This is a political act that has endangered the country. And the result of this is a more dangerous world where Americans will be killed that otherwise would not have been killed.”

— Steve Schmidt, former republican strategist, ‘Blood will be spilled’: Steve Schmidt explains Trump’s plan to get re-elected in 2020

*****

“The president of the United States is as easy to control as a toddler. … My diaper-wearing 20-month old daughter has better impulse control than this president.”

— Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Democrat Tammy Duckworth says Trump ‘is as easy to control as a toddler’ and ‘gets manipulated’ by dictators

*****

“The president treats the truth like a second home, he only lives there occasionally.”

— Mark Shields, Shields and Brooks on Iran general’s killing

*****

“There will be dead Americans, dead civilian Americans, as a result of this. I think we’ve now ended any hope of keeping Iraq out of Iran’s arms.”

— Michael Morell, former acting head of CIA on repercussions of assassination of Iranian Maj. Gen. Suleimani, Making of a martyr: How Qassem Suleimani was hunted down

*****

“It is rarely the children of the billionaire class who face the agony of reckless foreign policy ― it is the children of working families.”

— Sen. Bernie Sanders

*****

“Washington unfortunately, is a city filled with ambition, with individuals whose first instinct when faced with a decision is look over their shoulders and calculate how this might help or hurt them, who are unwilling to take a chance, to take a risk, to think of anyone or anything else besides themselves and their own careers.”

— Rep. John L. Lewis, Walking With the Wind: A Memoir Of The Movement, 1998 (p.451)

*****

“If the Democratic Party follows its base and promotes progressive candidates and policies, it has a good chance of pulling America back from the brink of authoritarianism and oligarchy, and to restore our moral authority in the world. A return to big thinking and big goals like those of FDR and LBJ will put Democrats on a track to a second multigenerational governing majority.”

— Thom Hartman, How America Broke Up With The Democratic Party

*****

“For anyone who accuses us for instituting purity tests, it’s called having values. It’s called giving a damn.”

— Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez