Quote/Unquote
October 31"If you're a nominee without a hold, you'd have to feel lonesome."
October 30
"Only in America could a poor black kid end up with the Vice President of the United States visiting him at the hospital."
--AFGE President John Sturdivant to Vice President Al Gore when Gore visited him in the hospital earlier this year.
October 29
"Your background is uniquely suited to the task. You are not a career civil servant. You are a successful businessman."
--Sen. William Roth, R-Del., to IRS commissioner-designate Charles O. Rossotti.
October 28
"Often what the federal government can do for families seems smaller than NATO or the Cold War. But to families, if you can provide a cop on the beat in the neighborhood and drive down crime, that's a big deal."
--Political consultant Robert Squier.
October 27
"Chances of getting buyout authority are still alive, but barely."
--The State Department's Alex De La Garza, on the potential use of buyouts during the reorganization of the foreign affairs agencies.
October 24
"I think we all in the Department of Commerce bear some of the responsibility. It does not all fall on one person's lap. On the other hand, the director is the head of the weather service."
--Commerce Secretary William Daley on financial management problems at the National Weather Service.
October 23
"I'm predicting Thanksgiving. People don't know how to hit the off button. To shut this place down, someone has to say yes and no."
--Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., on when Congress will adjourn.
October 22
"I commend the president for being flexible enough to admit he made a mistake."
--House Speaker Newt Gingrich on the Clinton administration's decision to end its opposition to a proposal to reform the IRS.
October 21
"The government and aerospace industries would be the two on top of my list, and aerospace would be there because they have to deal with government so much."
--"Dilbert" cartoonist Scott Adams, when asked where the most Dilbert-like workers can be found.
October 17
The President "highly values the professional service rendered by employees of the federal government, but at the same time, we have a generous package of benefits that have been structured."
--White House spokesman Mike McCurry on President Clinton's decision to veto a measure that would have allowed federal employees to switch retirement plans.
October 16
"Until we balance the budget, we don't have additional money to spend."
--OMB Director Franklin Raines, warning Congress not to spend anticipated budget surpluses yet.
October 15
"We've got to change the way we deal with disasters, or we are doomed to pay for our poor planning in lost lives and lost property, over and over and over again. We have to break the damage-repair, damage-repair cycle."
--FEMA Director James Lee Witt on how his agency is preparing for El Niño.
October 14
"There is a group - and I do vote with them on occasion - that obviously sees a government conspiracy in everything. Which is an oxymoron, since these people are in the government."
--A member of Congress quoted by CongressDaily about the 'Black Helicopter Caucus'.
October 10
"When you start encountering the same kinds of management problems the second time, it's probably time to think about doing something else."
--CIA inspector general Frederick P. Hitz, who is planning to leave his post after seven years in the job.
October 9
"We could have built it cheaper, yes, but we wanted someone coming up the trail or off the road to encounter a nice restroom facility."
--Roger Rector, superintendent of the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, on a $330,000 outhouse in the park.
October 8
"The way in which you lead in government is to do what you're capable of doing, rather than telling other levels of government what to do."
--New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
October 7
"These are not pork projects. These were projects that were needed and that the military wanted."
--Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, on President Clinton's line-item veto of 38 military construction projects.
October 6
"All roads lead to OMB."
--G. Edward DeSeve, acting deputy director for management at OMB.
October 3
"My guys are working night and day on these things."
--OMB Director Franklin Raines on the effort to scour appropriations bills to find candidates for line-item vetoes.
October 2
"Last week's Senate hearings on the IRS really hit a nerve, exposing a threatening, excessive bureaucracy. Real compliance with the Results Act means there's more to come."
--House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, in a statement issued on Sept. 30, the deadline for agencies to file strategic plans required under the Government Performance and Results Act.
October 1
"The first role of government is not to provide jobs. It's to provide services."
--Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., on his Freedom from Government Competition Act.
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