As they see it.

"Earmarks are a gateway drug on the road to spending addiction."

--U.S. Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, to the Christian Science Monitor, on the practice in Congress of targeting spending to specific projects.

"It's a testosterone problem. Some people are making decisions based upon egos rather than what is best for the state of New Jersey."

--New Jersey Senator Loretta Weinberg to the Star Ledger about the shutdown of the state government and the impasse over a budget this past July.

"I don't have a clue why we're on the list. We're on a gravel road, not even blacktop. We're nowhere."

--Brian Lehman, owner of Amish Country Popcorn in Indiana, which employs five people, to the Indianapolis Star on why his business was listed on the federal government's list of potential terrorist targets.

"People say, 'How do you last so long?' It's easy. Frequent naps. Frequent naps prevent old age, especially when driving."

--Morton Morrison, 94, to The New York Times. He teaches a course to the elderly on how to continue driving into their old age, and when to consider hanging up the keys.

"We don't like lobbyists. They irritate us. They hound us. But lobbying is not some particular thing that particular people do. It's a phrase for what citizens of all kinds do under the First Amendment."

--North Carolina Senator Dan Clodfelter to the AP.

"It's the $6.25 per-gallon person we're going to be going after."

--North Carolina Representative Rick Glazier to the AP about a bill against price gouging after a disaster or state of emergency.

"The public perception by some is that we're growing government. We're not here to spend money but to save the public's building. I think a majority of the people who work in this building, regardless of party, recognize the need."

--Oregon Representative Wayne Krieger, a member of the facilities committee of the Public Commission on the Oregon Legislature to the Statesman Journal about renovations of the capitol.