Never once have Democrats benefited from attempts at reasonableness and compromise and accommodation. To the contrary, Bush and his team seem to view political compromise as weakness, and they punish it rather than reward or reciprocate it.

Highlighted a negative stereotype of the party -- a party that truly only welcomes conservative white males. That's an unflattering view of the party and one frankly we thought they were trying to ameliorate.

In politics, tone and modulation matter.

We knew he had his work cut out for him.

He did his best, and cleverly, to imply that he's sympathetic to Roe and its value as precedent. But we'd be foolish to take his testimony as an assurance that he's supportive of the right to choice or even the more fundamental right to privacy.

In a sense these are two guys who have never stopped running — they have never gotten out of campaign mode.

Very little credibility and very little appeal to anyone anywhere on the Republican ideological spectrum.

He was an underdog all the way. It was real surprising for him to finish second.

He was one of my boys. He was just one of those scrappy little kids, who wouldn't give up. He worked hard, he trained hard and he maintained his training.