Paul Begala

This is a first person, eyewitness account from a loyal member of the Bush cabinet who says that political pressure was brought to bear on him.

At what point do you start to get the idea that the Republicans are just not going to play along?

I think, frankly, less the town hall meetings. That hasn't moved a lot of Democrats.

Barack Obama ran for president believing in the myth of the reasonable, rational Republican.

I would like nothing better than to see this as bipartisan. So would President Obama.

That's the day Senator Baucus has said, by then, I will either have a bipartisan bill, or Baucus himself has suggested he will go it alone with Democrats.

I praise Senator Max Baucus, who a lot of my friends on the left are criticizing.

He said that in the Senate they could squeeze this plan down to $500 billion; that could be something that he could support.

At the end of the day, that David cites is September 15th, that's the day Senator Baucus has said, 'By then I will either have a bipartisan bill,' or Baucus himself had suggest he'll go it alone with Democrats.

Well, I mean Democratic members of Congress. Among independents... you know it's -- Republican opposition is hard and that's fine, they're the opposition party. But to try to pass something in a bipartisan fashion it's just going to be…

I think it takes a lot of guts for that young woman to stand up and confront -- presumably her Congressman, let's assume she live in Congressman Barney Frank's district.

It -- you know, it will be a flip-flop. But what he will do is dress it up.

I think, of those four, the best is to have some bipartisan, independent truth commission.

I want a truth commission to put all this out. I don't want my country to torture. I want my country to advance its national security, which torture does not.

It'll be a flip-flop. But what he'll do is dress it up.

It's guys like that that are going to bring the Republican Party back.

The Republicans, they do need the president to stumble. They don't like to say that in public, but that's OK.

Lyndon Johnson used to say, 'I'd rather have him inside the tent on spitting out than outside the tent spitting in.'

Yes, Arlen Specter was about a 64 percent vote reliable; 64 percent of the time he voted with his party as a Republican. I doubt he'll be much more loyal to the Democratic Party.

If we just have to stimulate the economy, Mr. President, they say, why don't you just focus on that?

It seems to me he's making a mistake in saying he doesn't want some independent commission to look at it, because that can take it off of his plate.

What was gained was an insight into, really, the trampling of the American Constitution and treaties into which we have entered that have the force of law and that should have been legally binding, irrespective of political views of a…

Yes, George W. Bush was lying when he said we don't torture.

This is very different from the Bush administration, which selectively leaked national security information, top-secret information, in order to build what I think the record shows was a dishonest case for war.

It lies on Capitol Hill, which is why that's exactly where the president is going.