Here are some of the week’s most notable quotes culled from news reports from across Texas, and beyond.
Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, responding to baseless accusations that Huma Abedin, a top aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is part of a conspiracy by the Muslim Brotherhood to infiltrate the top reaches of the U.S. government.
Ultimately, what is at stake in this matter is larger even than the reputation of one person. This is about who we are as a nation, and who we still aspire to be … When anyone, not least a member of Congress, launches specious and degrading attacks against fellow Americans on the basis of nothing more than fear of who they are and ignorance of what they stand for, it defames the spirit of our nation, and we all grow poorer because of it.
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Ed Rollins, rebuking the unfounded claims made against Abedin by Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minnesota.
Having worked for Congressman Bachmann’s campaign for president, I am fully aware that she sometimes has difficulty with her facts, but this is downright vicious and reaches the late Senator Joe McCarthy level.
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U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Tyler, saying he does not make unfounded accusations against certain people because they are Muslim.
You follow me around the world. You see me hugging Muslims around the world, because the ones I hug are our friends.
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Richard Ferraro, vice president for communications with the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, on the Boy Scouts of America decision to reaffirm its longtime policy of barring openly gay boys from membership and gay or lesbian adults from serving as leaders.
The Boy Scouts of America is one of the last cultural institutions to have discrimination as part of their policy.
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Authors Warren Throckmorton and Michael Coulter, on David Barton’s book “The Jefferson Lies.”
David Barton claims he is setting the record straight with this book, but that claim is far from reality. Barton misrepresents and distorts a host of Jefferson’s ideas and actions, particularly his views and practices regarding religion, slavery and church-state relations. As Jefferson did with the Gospels, Barton chooses what he likes about Jefferson and leaves out the rest to create a result more in line with his ideology. In fact, there were so many problems with his book that we wrote an entire book in response.
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Texas State Board of Education member George Clayton, R-Richardson, announcing plans to run a write-in campaign in November as a last-ditch effort to hang on to his District 12 seat.
I have never yet figured out just exactly what my three opponents could tell me that I’ve done so wrong. I am convinced more than ever that my sexual orientation had a great deal to do with it. And I will not permit that to defeat me.
