Verbatim: Mar. 28, 2005

By DEPARTMENT Monday, Mar. 28, 2005

    • "I know that nothing can end the pain of the families who have lost loved ones in this struggle, but they can know that their sacrifice has added to America's security and the freedom of the world." --PRESIDENT BUSH, in his weekly radio address, on the second anniversary of the beginning of the war in Iraq

    "I'm not here to discuss the past. I'm here to be positive about this subject." --MARK MCGWIRE, holder of baseball's record for most homers in a season, repeatedly refusing to answer questions about whether he has ever used steroids, at a House committee hearing

    "I know for a fact that torture is not productive. That's not professional interrogation. We don't do torture." --PORTER GOSS, CIA director, at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, when asked about the practice of shipping some foreign prisoners to other nations for interrogation, where they might be tortured

    "I believe deeply in the mission of development." --PAUL WOLFOWITZ, hawkish Deputy Defense Secretary, defending his nomination to head the World Bank

    "It turns out that we were all wrong." --ALAN GREENSPAN, chairman of the Federal Reserve, at a congressional hearing, referring to the rosy surplus forecasts he relied on to support the 2001 Bush tax cuts

    "You are going to burn in hell for this." --DENNIS ROCHA, Laci Peterson's father, speaking directly to Laci's husband Scott Peterson at a hearing in which a judge sentenced Peterson to death for killing his wife and unborn child

    "Without their parents there, this became like Pinocchio's Pleasure Island." --KIKI FOURNIER, a former housekeeper for Michael Jackson, testifying at his trial that boys staying at his ranch often ran wild

    "I have to tell the maid to buy diapers and get the pool boy to walk the dog? Can't I just make out with Kevin all the time? Being married sucks." --BRITNEY SPEARS, complaining in Allure magazine about the responsibilities of family and stepchildren

    Sources: The White House; New York Times; AP; Financial Times; AP; New York Times; AP; Washington Post