Quotables

‘Uh, on what particular issue?’

U.S. Rep. Gary Peters, D-Mich., on whether President Obama is doing a good job. Peters is running for the U.S. Senate. Another Democratic Senate candidate, Alison Lundergan Grimes of Kentucky, refuses to say whether she voted for the president.

‘Those on our side viewed the White House as so eager to rid itself of Iraq that it was willing to withdraw rather than lock in arrangements that would preserve our influence and interests.’

Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, in his new book Worthy Fights. He blames the president for fumbling negotiations that could have left a small force of U.S. troops in Iraq: “To my frustration, the White House coordinated the negotiations but never really led them.”

‘161,000 brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, grandparents lost.’

Vice President Joe Biden, speaking in Joplin, Mo., on the death toll from the tornado that hit Joplin on May 22, 2011. The true death toll was 161.

‘The preaching of the church of God does not belong to Caesar, and we will not hand it over to him.’

Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, on revelations that city attorneys in Houston, Texas, as part of a lawsuit issued subpoenas to many of the city’s pastors for “all speeches, presentations, or sermons related to HERO, the Petition, Mayor Annise Parker, homosexuality, or gender identity prepared by, delivered by, revised by, or approved by you or in your possession.” Many of the pastors have been part of an effort to put a city gay rights measure to a vote by city residents.

‘$561,286’

Annual New York City pension for retired Queens College history professor Edgar J. McManus, according to the Empire Center for Public Policy in Albany, N.Y. Sixteen other city pensioners received more than $200,000 per year, and 1,796 retirees received more than $100,000 per year.