On Ohio's economy...
“The economy here has been relatively strong since the Bush tax cuts.”
[Cincinnati Enquirer, 1/28/08]
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Republicans all across America are saying things so shocking that we could hardly believe it. But it’s true. We couldn’t make this stuff up. Take a look for yourself -- just click on a red state to see the shocking quotes.
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Ron Johnson
Wisconsin
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On Greenland...
"There's a reason Greenland was called Greenland, it was actually green at one point in time."
[Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 8/23/10]
Context: Ron Johnson invented a fact to fit his belief that climate change is not caused by man-made activity. The country and massive ice sheet is said to be named Greenland because in the 900s, Viking Erik the Red believed the pleasant name would attract settlers.
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On Global Warming...
"It's far more likely that it's just sunspot activity or just something in the geologic eons of time."
[Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 8/16/10]
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On Health Care...
"The health care bill is the greatest assault on our freedom in my lifetime."
[Candidate website, 06/10/10]
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Wavering Over An Earlier Promise to Sell His British Petroleum Stock...
“I think that’ll eventually happen, but I’ll do (a sale) based on market conditions. I’m going to have to finance this campaign.”
[Wispolitics.com forum, 7/26/10]
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In response to a question on global warming...
"I’m glad there is global warming."
[WTAQ, 6/07/10]
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On Extending Unemployment Insurance...
"When you continue to extend unemployment benefits, people really don't have the incentive to go take other jobs."
[WTAQ, 6/07/10]
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On British Petroleum in the wake of the Gulf Oil spill...
"This is not the time to be beating up on those guys, quite honestly."
[The Ed Morrissey Show, 6/2/2010]
Context: Johnson owns a significant amount of British Petroleum stock.
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On Social Security...
“It is a giant Ponzi scheme.”
[Fox Valley Initiative, 6/9/10]
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On BP Voluntarily Creating an Escrow Fund for Paying Out Oil Spill Claims...
“It is very troubling when we circumvent the rule of law.”
[AP, 6/21/10]
Context: Johnson owns a significant amount of British Petroleum stock.
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On the Government's Response to the BP Oil Spill...
“And, I mean, I am, I am disappointed that the uh, you know, the Obama Administration is just, you know, kinda doing an all out assault now on, on uh, the oil company before we have the problem fixed.”
[“Here and Now,” Wisconsin Public Television, 6/11/10]
Context: Johnson owns a significant amount of British Petroleum stock.
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Joe Miller
Alaska
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On Unemployment Benefits Being Unconstitutional...
"The unemployment compensation benefits…first of all, it’s not constitutionally authorized. I think that’s the first thing that’s gotta be looked at, so I do not favor their extension."
[ABC News, 7/19/10]
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On Privatizing Social Security...
“I don’t know whether it’s constitutional or not; it is certainly a horrible policy. The idea that the federal government should be running health care or retirement or any of those programs is fundamentally against what I believe. And that is that the private sector runs programs like that far better.”
[ABC News, 7/19/10]
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On Abortion...
“Miller...describes himself as ‘unequivocally pro-life,’ including cases of rape or incest.”
[Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, 8/20/10]
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Ken Buck
Colorado
On Supporting "Birther" Legislation...
“If you’re asking me, the answer is yes. I would support legislation that would require a birth certificate and you know the other things. You have to prove your age, which obviously a birth certificate would help with. To show you know that you are in fact eligible for federal office. I think that is fair legislation and common sense legislation.”
[Arapahoe County Meet & Greet, 6/3/10]
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Ken Buck
Colorado
On Social Security...
“I don’t know whether it’s constitutional or not; it is certainly a horrible policy. The idea that the federal government should be running health care or retirement or any of those programs is fundamentally against what I believe. And that is that the private sector runs programs like that far better.”
[Politico, 6/28/10]
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Ken Buck
Colorado
On Discontinuing Student Loans...
“We have student loans and other programs that people have built up a dependence on and we have to, we have to over time, and I'm not talking about 30 years, but over time we have to wean the American public off of those.”
[Jeff Crank Radio Show, 5/22/10]
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Rob Portman
Ohio
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On Privatizing Social Security...
“[It] can be a perfectly guaranteed and safe system.”
[Fox News, 6/18/01]
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On the Sub-Prime Mortgage Crisis...
"I have a hard time imagining that that would have a real world impact on our economy."
[Portman Press Briefing, 7/11/07]
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On When He Supported "Cap-and-Trade"...
"Private sector incentives, such as permitting companies to trade discharge outputs, can both reduce pollution and costs."
[Roll Call, 7/6/10]
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David Vitter
Louisiana
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On Climate Change...
“Unfortunately, that’s sort of the ridiculous pseudo-science garbage that’s so common on the left on this issue.”
[The Hill, 8/14/09]
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On What Is/Isn't A Women's Issue...
"[Disgraced aide Brent Furer] handled issues including abortion issues, including several other issues, but not women's affairs."
[Vitter Press Availability, Alexandria, LA - 7/8/2010]
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Commenting on Rush Limbaugh's statement when Limbaugh said in March 2009 that “I hope Obama fails.”
“I think what [Limbaugh] was saying was largely what I am saying.”
[The Hill, 3/03/09]
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On a Photo of Rachel Maddow...
"Must have been a long time ago."
[The Hill, 8/14/09]
Context: Vitter made the comment in response to a radio talk show host who described Rachel Maddow as “looking like a woman” in a yearbook photo.
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On Challenging President Obama's Legitimacy to be President ...
"I support conservative legal organizations and others who would bring that to court. I think that is the valid and most possibly effective grounds to do it."
[TPMDC, 7/7/10]
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On Prostitution...
“This was a very serious sin in my past.”
[The Hill, 8/14/09]
Context: Vitter made a statement responding to his phone number appearing in the phone records of the “D.C. Madam.”
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On Disciplining a Violent Staffer...
“The event was two years ago, the discipline he got in the office was two years ago.”
[TPMDC, 7/7/10]
Context: Vitter was speaking about an incident involving a former aide, Brent Furer, who held a woman hostage for 90 minutes and cut her with a knife in 2008. Furer stayed on Vitter’s payroll for two years after the incident. Vitter has answered no more questions about the incident.
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Rand Paul
Kentucky
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On How Congress Has No Business Protecting Miners...
"I'm not an expert, so don't give me the power in Washington to be making rules. You live here, and you have to work in the mines. You'd try to make good rules to protect your people here. If you don't, I'm thinking that no one will apply for those jobs. … I want to be compassionate, and I'm sorry for what happened, but I wonder: Was it just an accident?
[Details, 08/10]
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On His Version of Health Care Reform...
"It sounds funny, but you need to be paying more for your health care.”
[Details, 08/10]
Context: Instead of real reform, Rand Paul supports high-deductible insurance plans and people paying out-of-pocket for health care.
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On Medicare...
"The fundamental reason why Medicare is failing is why the Soviet Union failed -- socialism doesn't work."
[Kentucky Tonight on June 16, 1998]
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On the future of North America,...
“I guarantee it's one of their long-term goals, to have one sort of borderless mass continent.”
[Talking Points Memo, 5/25/2010]
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On Pulling the Plug on Grandma...
“Some committee is going to decide, what is the cost-benefit analysis for grandma?...And I think she won't get plugged in. Her ventilator won't be plugged in if she's 92 years old because society may say we don't have enough money to do that.”
[Glenn Beck, Fox News, 8/14/2009]
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On Health Insurance...
“We need to get insurance out of the way and let the consumer interact with their doctor the way they did basically before World War II.”
[Kentucky Tonight, 12/2/2002]
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On Why Health Insurance is a Problem...
“In our country, people primarily get access to health care through insurance, and that is part of the problem. If you go to the doctor, you don't pay directly for your doctor's services, your insurance company pays for it. ... So the price goes up indiscriminately because nobody is there to barter down the price.”
[Kentucky Tonight, 1/29/1999]
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On Deregulation...
“Get rid of regulations...Get OSHA out of our small businesses.”
[Happy Hour, Fox Business Network, 1/22/2010]
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On Pulling Yourself Up By Your Bootstraps...
“As bad as it sounds, ultimately we do have to sometimes accept a wage that’s less than we had at our previous job in order to get back to work and allow the economy to get started again. Nobody likes that, but it may be one of the tough love things that has to happen.”
[Herald-Leader, 6/18/2010]
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On Border Patrol...
"I think you could actually put in an electronic fence under the whole border...and you could probably have helicopter stations in maybe five different locations.”
[Huffington Post, 7/6/10]
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Roy Blunt
Missouri
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On President Obama's Citizenship...
“What I don’t know is why the president can’t produce a birth certificate. I don’t know anybody else who can’t produce one. I think that’s a legitimate question.”
[Springfield News-Leader, 8/5/09]
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On Medicare...
“We've had Medicare since 1965, and Medicare has never done anything to make people more healthy.”
[Hannibal Campaign Event, 7/25/09]
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On the Strength of the Economy...
“All the fundamentals are strong, especially in Southwest Missouri. I'm concerned we're going to talk ourselves into economic problems.”
[The Joplin Globe, 3/26/08]
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On the Strength of the Economy...
“The U.S. economy is strong, and we can expect it to continue growing due to sound economic policies.”
[Office of Rep. Roy Blunt, Press Release, 6/8/08]
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Sharron Angle
Nevada
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On Her Ability to Filibuster...
"I guarantee that I can talk most anything to death."
[Las Vegas Review-Journal, 08/03/10]
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On the Media...
"We needed to have the press be our friend ... (and) ask the questions we want to answer so that they report the news the way we want it to be reported."
[Fox News, 08/02/10]
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On the Second Amendment...
"The Second Amendment is the right to keep and bear arms for our citizenry...This is for us...This is for us when our government becomes tyrannical..."
[Huffington Post, 6/16/10]
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On What Fellow Republicans Think of Her...
They [Republicans] say, 'You're too conservative.' Was Thomas Jefferson too conservative? I'm tired of some people calling me wacky."
[Las Vegas Review Journal, 3/21/10]
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On What Fellow Republicans Think of Her...
They [Republicans] say, 'You're too conservative.' Was Thomas Jefferson too conservative? I'm tired of some people calling me wacky."
[Las Vegas Review Journal, 3/21/10]
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On Why She Supports a Total Ban on Abortion...
"I think that two wrongs don't make a right. And I have been in the situation of counseling young girls, not 13 but 15, who have had very at risk, difficult pregnancies. And my counsel was to look for some alternatives, which they did. And they found that they had made what was really a lemon situation into lemonade."
[Huffington Post, 7/8/10]
Context: Angle made the comment when asked about abortion in cases of rape or incest.
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On Family Roles...
"Right now, we say in a traditional home one parent stays home with the children and the other provides the financial support for that family. That is the acceptable and right thing to do. If we begin to expand that, not only do we dilute the resources that are available, we begin to dilute things like health care, retirement, all the things offered to families that help them be a family."
[Huffington Post, 6/9/10]
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On the BP Escrow Account for Paying Out Oil Spill Claims...
"Government shouldn't be doing that to a private company. And I think you named it clearly: It's a slush fund."
[Alan Stock Show, 7/7/10]
Angle made the comment in response to a talk show caller's comment.
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On Opposing Extending Unemployment Benefits...
“You can make more money on unemployment than you can going down and getting one of those jobs that is an honest job, but it doesn’t pay as much. And so that’s what’s happened to us is that we have put in so much entitlement into our government that we really have spoiled our citizenry and said you don’t want the jobs that are available.”
[Interview with KRNO, 7/14/10]
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On Why She Won't Do Interviews (Except With Conservative Media Outlets)...
“There’s no earnings for me there.”
[Interview with CBN News, 7/14/10]
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On The Role of a Senator...
“People ask me, ‘What are you going to do to develop jobs in your state?’ Well, that’s not my job as a U.S. senator.”
[Sharron Angle campaign appearance, 5/14/10]
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On the Department of Education...
“The Federal Department of Education should be eliminated. The Department of Education is unconstitutional and should not be involved in education, at any level.”
[Las Vegas Sun, 7/12/10]
Context: This position was found in the issues section of her campaign's original website. Her new site never calls the department unconstitutional nor says anything about abolishing it.
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On Campaign Finance Limitations...
“Campaign finance limitations must come from the candidates themselves.”
[Las Vegas Sun, 7/12/10]
Context: This position was found in the issues section of her campaign's original website. The site also trumpets an endorsement from Citizens United, the group that won a Supreme Court case overturning a crucial part of the federal campaign finance law. Angle doesn’t mention any of that on her new website.
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On Social Security...
Angle calls for “free-market alternatives” to be developed “as the Social Security system is transitioned out.”
[Las Vegas Sun, 7/12/10]
Context: This position was found in the issues section of her campaign's original website. The new site doesn’t say anything about “transitioning out” Social Security.
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On "Second Amendment remedies"...
“You know, our Founding Fathers, they put that Second Amendment in there for a good reason and that was for the people to protect themselves against a tyrannical government. And in fact Thomas Jefferson said it's good for a country to have a revolution every 20 years. I hope that's not where we're going, but, you know, if this Congress keeps going the way it is, people are really looking toward those Second Amendment remedies and saying my goodness what can we do to turn this country around? I'll tell you the first thing we need to do is take Harry Reid out.”
[Washington Post, 6/15/10]
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Carly Fiorina
California
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On What Kind Of Republican She Is...
"I share Sarah Palin's values."
[American Spectator, 11/23/09]
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On Addressing an Economic Crisis...
"The country cannot afford to be distracted by short-term financial and employment concerns."
[Technews.com, 1/8/04; Washington Post, 1/8/04]
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On Being a Two Yacht Family...
"Fiorina spokeswoman Julie Soderlund said it makes sense for the Fiorinas to be a two-yacht family, given that the boat-loving couple have divided their time between California and D.C."
[San Francisco Chronicle, 7/19/10]
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On Sen. Barbara Boxer's Hair...
"God, what is that hair? So yesterday."
[CNN, 6/9/10]
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On Concern for Climate Change...
“Barbara Boxer is worried about the weather?”
[Fiorina Campaign Ad, "Safe"]
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John Boozman
Arkansas
On Repealing Health Care...
“We lost the battle, but I don’t think we lost the war."
[AP, 3/30/10]
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Chuck Grassley
Iowa
On Health Care Reform...
“We should not have a government program that determines you’re going to pull the plug on grandma.”
Sen. Chuck Grassley, on health care reform [MSNBC, 8/14/09]
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Mark Kirk
Illinois
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On his military service...
“I command the war room in the Pentagon.”
[Politico, 5/21/10]
Context: The Pentagon's National Military Command Center is headed by an officer of the rank of a one-star general, who would outrank Kirk.
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On Factual Errors About His Own Biography...
"I simply misremembered it wrong."
[Chicago Sun-Times, 6/4/2010]
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On Making Misstatements About His Past...
"I was not thinking."
[Washington Post, 6/29/10]
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Marco Rubio
Florida
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On Climate Change...
I don’t think there’s the scientific evidence to justify it.”
[Tampa Tribune, 2/13/10]
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On President Obama's Foreign Policy...
“[The Obama Doctrine] has made the world a more volatile and dangerous place...This administration has turned its back on the decades-old post-World War II system of alliances that previous presidents, Republicans and Democrats alike, built and nurtured. The result has been chaos.”
[Tampa Tribune, 2/13/10]
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Richard Burr
North Carolina
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On His Conservatism...
“It's impossible for any candidate to get to the right of me.”
[Winston-Salem Journal, 2/23/10]
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On Extending Unemployment Insurance...
“The wrong thing to do is to automatically today extend unemployment for 12 months. I think that's a discouragement to individuals that are out there to actually go out and go through the interviews.”
[Washington Post, July 20, 2010]
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To His Wife, During The Height Of The Economic Crisis...
“Tonight, I want you to go to the ATM machine, and I want you to draw out everything it will let you take. And I want you to tomorrow, and I want you to go Sunday.”
[Charlotte Observer, 4/16/09]
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Linda McMahon
Connecticut
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On the Campaign Trail Being No Place for Issues...
“I can certainly tell you I'm not adverse to talking in the right time or forum about what we need to do relative to our entitlements … I just don't believe that the campaign trail is the right place to talk about that.”
[CT Mirror, 08/02/10]
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Expressing Doubts On Steroid Dangers...
“There’s some evidence sometimes of muscle disease, or cardiac disease, but it’s really hard to know because you didn’t know the condition of the performer’s heart, or whatever, prior to.”
[Businessweek, 6/3/2010]
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Dino Rossi
Washington
“Is now the time to buy a waterfront home?”
[The Stranger, 6/14/10]
Context: This was the headline on a story announcing a real estate seminar led by Dino Rossi. Rossi also gave a seminar on how to buy up homes that Washington families had lost when they were foreclosed on.
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Dino Rossi
Washington
On Saints and Sinners...
“In the old adage, there are saints and sinners and those who can be saved,” he said. “The saints are with us, the sinners are not. And the ones that can be saved are the ones we will be talking to.”
[Hotline On Call, June 29, 2010]
Context: Rossi made the comment while contrasting his supporters with Sen. Patty Murray’s supporters during an interview with Hotline On Call.
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Clint Didier
Washington
On Energy Policy in the Wake of the Oil Spill...
“This government, this regime, is ruling us by fear. We need to unshackle our industry, as far as drilling for oil and building (more) refineries.”
[Vancouver Columbian, 7/13/10]
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Clint Didier
Washington
On Whether He Thinks America Can Drill Its Way to Energy Independence...
“Yes, I do. Yes, I do.”
[Seattle Times, 7/11/10]
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Clint Didier
Washington
On Pulling Yourself Up By Your Bootstraps...
“We've got to get rid of this ‘protecting the weak.’ If we keep the weak alive all the time it eats up the strong, and then our economy will never come back.”
[Seattle Times, 07/22/10]
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Kelly Ayotte
New Hampshire
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On Taxes...
“I'd like to repeal the IRS code completely.”
[Windham GOP Meeting, 10/19/09]
Context: Ayotte made the comment at an October 2009 campaign event in response to a question from a tax lawyer.
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On Justifying Arizona's Immigration Law...
"What happened in Arizona? They are facing a real public safety issue there, the second highest rate of kidnappings in the world."
[Ayotte Campaign Event, Concord NH - 7/6/10]
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Dan Coats
Indiana
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“It's more than health care. It's a government takeover of our lives.”
[South Bend Tribune, 4/17/10]
Context: Coats made the comments at a candidate forum in Elkhart, Indiana.
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On How Much He Earned As a Lobbyist...
"I can't begin to tell you what that number was ... all I know is that was part of my income."
[Interview with Fox Business Channel, 3/31/2010]
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Pat Toomey
Pennsylvania
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On Wall Street Derivatives...
Over-the-counter derivatives are “perhaps the most important, creative and innovative development in finance in the last 30 years.”
[C-SPAN, 11/4/99]
Context: Derivatives are a complex financial instrument that experts say helped cause the economic meltdown.
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On Wall Street Derivatives...
“I worked in the derivative sector of the financial services industry for 7 years in the 1980s and 1990s. I marvel now at how widespread, sophisticated, and indispensable these products have become since then."
[C-SPAN, 10/19/00]
Context: Derivatives are a complex financial instrument that experts say helped cause the economic meltdown.
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On Wall Street Derivatives...
“The derivative industry has...done enormous good and has been an enormous force for positive change in our economy.”
[House Banking and Financial Services Committee Hearing, 7/19/00]
Context: Derivatives are a complex financial instrument that experts say helped cause the economic meltdown.
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On Derivative Trading...
“The derivative industry has...done enormous good and has been an enormous force for positive change in our economy.”
[House Banking and Financial Services Committee Hearing, 7/19/00]
Context: Derivatives are a complex financial instrument that experts say helped cause the economic meltdown.
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On Owning A Business...
"For most of the period of '91 in which Rockin' Robin's was opened, I was living and working in Hong Kong."
[Philadelphia Inquirer, 7/9/10]
Context: Toomey was touting his “small business” experience. In reality, Toomey agreed during a 2000 sworn deposition that he was a “hands-off owner” and that he only visited the nightclub once a month or less.
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