Quotables

"I think the 'surge' is working."

Leading anti-war congressman John Murtha, D-Pa., after returning from a trip to Iraq. Murtha, who also said the Iraqi government is "dysfunctional," later issued a statement reiterating his call for "an orderly redeployment of U.S. forces from Iraq."

"I'm sure tomorrow they'll attack him for being a flip-flopper because he told his second-grade teacher he wanted to be an astronaut."

Bill Burton, spokesman for Barack Obama's presidential campaign, on a Hillary Clinton press release citing essays Obama wrote in kindergarten and third grade about wanting to be president as proof of long-held White House ambitions.

"I've lived here 26 years, and I've never run a jet boat down I-5 before."

Relief volunteer Adam Boehm on the flooding and mudslides in western Washington state last week from a storm that left five dead and 50,000 without power. Authorities said a three-mile stretch of Interstate 5 was under at least 10 feet of water.

"It was like a river. As the river went, the fire went with it."

John Malone of Everett, Mass., after an overturned tanker truck spilled 9,400 gallons of burning fuel into his neighborhood on Dec. 5. Nobody was injured, but the wave of fire destroyed two multi-family homes and dozens of cars.