Verbatim: Jan. 23, 2006

By DEPARTMENT Monday, Jan. 23, 2006

    • "Did we really need to have our children die to have officials pay attention to us?" MEHMET YENIGUN, resident of Diyadin, Turkey, after authorities declared an official avian-flu outbreak, but only following the death of three children who had been among 14 people infected

    "Be quiet over there. Scurrilous dogs." EDWARD KENNEDY, Democratic Senator from Massachusetts, jokingly berating Judiciary Committee colleagues for groaning after he was granted two extra minutes to speak during Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito's confirmation hearings

    "I don't have any animosity for him. I hope he's praying for me in heaven." THOMAS GUMBLETON, 75, Roman Catholic auxiliary bishop of Detroit, alleging last week that he was sexually abused 60 years ago by a priest, whom he declined to name and said was dead

    "We don't want a medieval knight." MAJOR GENERAL STEPHEN SPEAKES, explaining the drawbacks of providing too much body armor to soldiers in Iraq

    "The vast majority of Iraqis prefer freedom with intermittent power to life in the permanent darkness of tyranny and terror." PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH, warning Americans to gird for more violence in Iraq over the coming year

    "The Donner party's experience was bad, but it wasn't as bad as everybody's been told." JULIE SCHABLITSKY, University of Oregon anthropologist, who, after completing a three-year study of the place where members of the infamous 1846 expedition allegedly resorted to cannibalism to survive, said she had no evidence to prove they had eaten humans

    "Unlike other candidates, I'm not going to hide my evil side." JONATHON (THE IMPALER) SHARKEY, former pro wrestler and candidate for Minnesota Governor, whose platform includes a plan to impale terrorists

    "The doctor then told me that I should not do any events for three days and also said to me that I should not speak for three days. My wife said, 'Make it seven.'" ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, California Governor, after cutting his lip in a motorcycle crash in Los Angeles

    Sources: New York Times (2); AP; Washington Post (2); AP (2); AFP