2008 Quotes of the Year

2008 Quotes of the Year

January

I stayed loyal but obviously Fred’s campaign didn’t have the flair I had hoped it would.
- early Fred Thompson supporter, Lee Terry

Scott Kleeb's Senate fever may be fading away. Kleeb is apparently having trouble getting the financial backing needed to make a Senate run.

- KMTV (in Jan 08)

All 100 Senators oughta be on the line on this. If you want a safe job, go sell shoes.
- Chuck Hagel to his Senate colleagues

And we have a mortgage. And you wouldn’t believe who’s paying for that mortgage. My wife as you know, as Kris alluded to, is on TV quite a bit, she’s on FOX News believe it or not. She’s the Democrat on FOX news. She and Alan Colmes. So I’m here to say thank you to Shepherd Smith. To say thank you to Sean Hannity. To say thank you to John Gibson for paying for my mortgage. That is absolutely the best thing that FOX News has ever done.

- Scott Kleeb to a Democrat gathering

(Kleeb's wife later reported that she actually doesn't "make a dime" from  her appearances on FOX...)

I lost by 10,321 votes ...not that I counted.
- Kleeb (who actually lost his 2006 race by 20,641 votes)

February
Scott comes out of education. I come out of business. What has business had to do with the last two decades. Change. Change. Change.

- new Democrat Senate candidate, Tony Raimondo

Kleeb said the biggest difference between the two is that he, unlike his opponent, has always been a Democrat.
- OWH

March

If I'd have an opportunity to play a significant role in a significant position -

 if all the right pieces were there - sure you'd have to consider something like that.
- Chuck Hagel, on whether he would serve in an Obama cabinet

That's a picture of Mac Davis. A great entertainer.

- Hagel on an early 70's pic of himself.

We shouldn't have sped, we should have timed it better. I take full responsibility.
- Scott Kleeb after losing his license to drive.



April

Leavenworth Street has learned that (Tom) Osborne will retire his position as Athletic Director and will mount a late write-in campaign for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate against Mike Johanns.

- Someone's idea of an April Fool's Day joke...

There is one blog on the Republican side that I absolutely love. And it's called "LeavenStreetWorth.'"

- Jane Fleming Kleeb


Husband and parent

- Scott Kleeb ad bullet point (as opposed to his 2006 ads: "Bachelor playboy")


I think I'm going to have to go back and read Roe v. Wade. What am I missing here?
- Tony Raimondo


We'll pay whatever it costs to take this test to prove that I'm not taking drugs. Obviously, I have nothing to hide.

- Jim Esch on Richard Carter's request for a urine sample

May

...The best Democrat to face Johanns

- OWH's endorsement of Tony Raimondo

Esch says he's convinced Raimondo is the most qualified candidate.
- when Esch endorsed Raimondo over Kleeb


If Mr. Esch was still in law school, he would have been kicked out.

- Lee Terry campaign manager David Boomer on Jim Esch's website plagiarism


We are going to be the best person to beat Mike Johanns
- Scott Kleeb

I'll think about that later.

- Tony Raimondo when asked if he would support Kleeb in the general election

It's not a Hal thing.
- State Sen. Brad Ashford on why he won't run for Mayor of Omaha.

I don't intend to be and don't expect to be on any ballot this year.  I don't intend to be or expect to be in any administration next year.

- Senator Chuck Hagel

June

MECA is one of our more prestigious boards, and there are many qualified and deserving people in our community.
- Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey, after kicking David Sokol off the MECA board

Mayor Mike Fahey was advised this morning that the private funding for the new downtown baseball stadium would be in jeopardy if David Sokol was not reappointed to the MECA board.
- statement from the Mayor's office, then next day...

Fahey’s act of booting Sokol from MECA for not being a registered voter here was dirty pool.  (And re leasing it after the new NCAA contract was signed? Interesting.) This was about the mayor wiping out an adversary.

-OWH's Tom Shatel


It's hard to imagine that (delegates) are going to vote on someone at the Democratic Convention who's anti-choice, anti-civil rights for gays and anti-gun control.

- Bob Kerrey on the possibility of a Vice-President Hagel

Thank you all...I have to go since I promised my wife I'd take her to Sex and the City tonight and it's starting in four minutes!

- Scott Kleeb

July

Nebraska families cannot afford Jim Esch.
- Former Dem House candidate Richard Carter, endorsing Lee Terry


I could get an axe murderer, I could get a serial rapist and put him up here and say ‘this is Jim Esch, vote for him, he’s here with you.’ and everybody would clap. They don’t know what he looks like. Is Jim Esch here now? How are you going to vote for him? They sent a flunkie because black people are so dumb and so easily tricked that the white man sends his flunkie.
- State Sen. Ernie Chambers

It's time for a new Mayor to take up where I left off.
- Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey

August

Who's going to be the keynoter at the Democratic convention?

Oh, my money's on Chuck Hagel.
- MSNBC's Chuck Todd answering Tom Brokaw (it ended up being Virginia's Mark Warner)


I think the Right to Life side is a little more extremist
-Jim Esch

The on-the-ground impression I got was that this region is in a very difficult place right now.
- Jim Esch, reporting from Ahghanistan

A cowboy is somebody who’s concerned with things in the world in which he lives. The creak of leather as you’re riding a horse. The shadows as the sun sets. Dew on a cow’s back. The smell of rain. The smell of cut hay.
- Scott Kleeb waxing nostalgically to New Yorkers

September

I’ve now been told that, as a condition of his early support, Ben Nelson told Barack Obama that Chuck Hagel should not, could not and would not be called to serve in a new democrat administration. That pretty much solves the Hagel as Secretary of Anything question.

- L. St. correspondent Jordan McGrain at the GOP convention


To be honest with you, I don't read the blogs because I think I'd go insane probably.
- Jim Esch

I'm sorry you don't understand the process, but yes it was. It was a standalone bill incorporated into the energy bill.
- Lee Terry, responding to Jim Esch on the Hill-Terry Bill

Has anyone ever personally asked for your vote like I am now?
-  Scott Kleeb after crashing an Omaha Bar Assoc. gig

$8.87 / gallon
- the price of gas Kleeb's campaign listed in an ad


$6.71 / gallon
- the price of gas The Reader photo-shopped into a story about Lee Terry

October

A skunk with a bow.
- Ben Nelson describing the Wall St. bailout bill

You never know when you're going to stumble across an idea that actually works.
- Jim Esch


Obama-Terry Voter anyone?

- Lee Terry ad


Scott (Kleeb)might have hurt his back leg on that, because that's the biggest stretch I have ever heard.
- Mike Johanns


It is ironic that (Congressman Lee Terry) is mocked so snidely by some in his district, given the reality that he has pursued a serious-minded, unegotistical approach to his public service.
- OWH Editorial


He was just a ranchhand, and he worked here probably a total of seven or eight months.
- Scott Kleeb's former boss, on Kleeb's career as a cowboy.

Energy: All options are on the table.
- "Jim Esch for Congress" website

My feeling on ANWR is to take that off the table.
- Esch, the week before the election.

We don’t breathe the same air as Cheney or Rove. We cancel social engagements if we look at the list and see that they’re on it.
-Mrs. Chuck Hagel

November

I love this state and I believe I love it more than Adrian Smith

-3rd D Congressional candidate Jay Stoddard

Can you imagine what it would be like today if your mill levy was sixty-two and a half cents a hundred?
- Hal Daub


I don't talk to channel 7.
- City Councilman Frank Brown

December

Look, I understand that the whole world is going “green” right now, but I don’t think that means we have to recycle our mayoral candidates.
-Mayoral candidate Jim Vokal


You look at how high it's gonna be, and how you could do twists and turns all the way down into the infield, and uh, how you could generate snow...-Mayor candidate Jim Suttle proposing a toboggan run inside the new downtown CWS baseball stadium


The council needs be in lockstep with the Mayor.
- Councilman and Mayoral candidate Suttle