Category: Best Line of the Day

Clever turns of phrase, special splashes of wit, provocative insight — all in a sentence or two.

Best summing up of the day, so far

These young women were much, much smarter and much more decent than most of the adult commentary which has swirled around them this week. We thought their coach was outstanding too. Ditto for that superb Rutgers president, who told these young women that he and their school “have their back.”

Daily Howler

Jesus’ General deserves your click on this topic, too.

And, via Crooks and Liars, The Daily Show on Imusgate.

Best line of the week, so far

President Bush is losing his top day-to-day Iraq advisor. If you’re wondering what went haywire in Iraq, it’s worth examining the faint praise being heaped on Meghan O’Sullivan now that she’s leaving:

Stanford University professor Larry Diamond, who worked in Baghdad with O’Sullivan during Bremer’s tenure, called her an amazingly quick study of Iraqi politics.

She “came in with very little knowledge of Iraq when the war began,” Diamond said, but by the time she left some Iraqis were calling her “the Gertrude Bell of the American mission” – a reference to the British civil administrator who helped create Iraq in the early 1920s.

So, in other words, she’s a graduate of the learn-by-doing school of nation building.

And, of course, she stayed in a Holiday Inn Express last night.

FunctionalAmbivalent

Best line of the day, so far

“[A]nd it is AS A CITIZEN that I am utterly nauseated by the fact that one of Karl Rove’s little oppo elves is a United States Attorney instead of being the guy who cleans my spikes at the golf course.”

Charles Pierce, who adds: “It is AS A CITIZEN that I am failed so often and so comically by the mandarins of our political press corps, most of whom I wouldn’t trust to organize a two-car funeral if you spotted them the hearse.”

Best sports line of the day, so far

Illinois, with 38 victories, owns the dubious distinction of winning the most NCAA tournament games without ever capturing a national title.

“And now that Chief Illiniwek has been relegated to the ‘happy hunting ground of mascots,’ ” reader Tom Scarpelli noted in an e-mail to ChicagoSports.com, “the University of Illinois athletic teams can unveil their rightful new name, ‘The Fighting Schottenheimers.’ ”

Sideline Chatter

Best line of the day, so far

“Someone needs to open a combination shooting range and yoga studio.”

New gun enthusiast Patton Oswalt writing in The New York Times Sunday Magazine. He goes on to say:

“I believe in sustainable agriculture. I support gay marriage. I think war is a failure of diplomacy, logic and leadership. I’m embarrassed by the fact that it’s 2007 and my country is debating evolution. Pot should be legal. I dream of a world where punches are made of flowers.

“And, it turns out, I love guns.”

Thanks to Veronica for the pointer.

Best ‘got your back’ line of the day, so far

“Unless Mr. Bolton knows a different Abraham Lincoln from our 16th President, which I suppose is possible, I can categorically say, and hundreds of historians will back us up, you are historically right and he is historically wrong.”

Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin to Jon Stewart. Stewart was seeking confirmation for what he had said to former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton the previous night about Lincoln seeking varying points of view. Bolton had claimed Stewart was wrong about Lincoln.

Bolton typifies much of the Bush Administration: Often wrong, never in doubt.

Crooks and Liars has the video. Ms. Goodwin’s book about Lincoln is called Team of Rivals.

NewMexiKen’s original post on the Bolton-Stewart video.

Best line of the day, so far

“Some people might say this was a victimless crime, but I think that depends on whether the perpetrator has recently broken up with a girlfriend. If so, I would say she’s not too happy about this development. It’s one thing to lose your guy to a cheerleader, but it really has to sting when you lose your guy to road kill.”

From Scott Adams at The Dilbert Blog, which has more on the Wisconsin case, all of it sick and all of it funny.

Still altogether too apt

First posted here two years ago today:

A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolved, and the people recovering their true sight, restoring their government to its true principles. It is true that, in the meantime, we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war, and long oppressions of enormous public debt. … If the game runs sometimes against us at home, we must have patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost. For this is a game where principles are the stake.

Thomas Jefferson, 1798