Verbatim: Nov. 7, 2005

  • "One day I read I was a Republican hack, another day I read I was a Democratic hack. The only thing I did between those two nights was sleep." PATRICK FITZGERALD, special counsel leading the probe into the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity

    "Thanks for the chance to get out of Washington." PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH, in Norfolk, Va., for a speech on terrorism, on the day a grand jury indicted White House official I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby for perjury, making false statements and obstruction of justice

    "I tried several times to convince the American President to not go to war." SILVIO BERLUSCONI, Prime Minister of Italy and staunch supporter--at least in public--of the U.S.-led war in Iraq, recalling private conversations with Bush in a television interview scheduled to air the same day the two leaders are set to meet this week in Washington

    "Israel must be wiped off the map." MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD, President of Iran, at a student rally in Tehran. Two days later, after prompting international outrage, he said he stood by his remarks

    "We don't want to sacrifice that ability simply in order to make an image point." MICHAEL CHERTOFF, head of Homeland Security, on the latest 30-day contract extension for former FEMA chief Michael Brown, who has been retained since his Sept. 12 resignation to help with post-Katrina assessments and is getting paid at his annual salary rate of $148,000

    "Bloggers claim I was their first pelt, and I believe that. I'll never read a blog." TRENT LOTT, Mississippi Senator, who resigned as majority leader in 2002 after bloggers seized on controversial comments he made about South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond

    "More than one Bush staffer reads the Onion and enjoys it thoroughly. We do have a sense of humor, believe it or not." TRENT DUFFY, White House spokesman, on how the Administration became aware that the satirical weekly was using the presidential seal without permission

    Sources: CNN; AP (3); USA Today; Christian Science Monitor; New York Times