Quotables

‘You live in la la land.’

House Oversight chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, to the Justice Department’s FOIA chief, Melanie Ann Pustay, who defended the agency rating itself a 5-out-of-5 for “proactive disclosure”—even though agency FOIA backlogs have more than doubled under the Obama administration. “We’re at the heart of why I think there’s a problem,” Chaffetz said during a hearing. “You all think you’re doing a great job.

‘You can’t wear pearls all over your face.’

Former First Lady Barbara Bush in a 90th birthday interview with her granddaughter, Jenna Bush Hager. Bush said she started wearing pearls to “cover the wrinkles,” but “they no longer do.”

‘Sell your house; don’t sell this horse.’

Bloodstock agent Jeff Seder, advising owner Ahmed Zayat in 2013 not to sell American Pharoah, who won the Triple Crown on June 6. (See “Dispatches.”)

‘What most concerns me is that they continue doing illegal things. For example, graduating independent journalists.’

Cuban President Raul Castro on activities inside Washington’s U.S. Interests Section in Havana. Castro singled out as an obstacle to re-establishing diplomatic ties an American-sponsored educational course aimed at teaching journalism to Cubans who want to develop independent media in Cuba.

‘It’s now been five years since Common Core was adopted, and the truth is that it’s simply not working.’

New Jersey Gov. and likely presidential candidate Chris Christie, suggesting New Jersey could abandon the controversial national education standards