Non Compos Mentis

“Mr. President, would you go so far as to say that Alexei Navalny’s blood is on the hands of House Republicans right now?” —CNN’s M.J. Lee

Useful Idiot

“What’s happening in the Gaza Strip isn’t a war, it’s a genocide. It’s not a war of soldiers against soldiers. It’s a war between a highly prepared army and women and children. What’s happening in the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian people hasn’t happened at any other moment in history. Actually, it has happened: when Hitler decided to kill the Jews.” —Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva

For the Record

“The Associated Press, not exactly a right-wing outfit, recently reviewed 70 years of New York civil fraud cases. Here’s what the AP concluded: ‘Trump’s case stands apart in a significant way: It’s the only big business found that was threatened with a shutdown without a showing of obvious victims and major losses.’ This is clearly a case of selective prosecution, vindictive leftist lawfare, and political persecution.” —Gary Bauer

Political Futures

“Though certain Republican-leaning pundits as well as Democrats think Trump ought to be a weak, even hopeless nominee for the GOP, he polls better against Biden than he ever did against Hillary Clinton — and, of course, he beat her. It’s easy to say that isn’t so much a sign of Trump’s strength as it is of Biden’s shakiness. Yet what does it tell us that no other, younger leader in either party has been able to challenge them?” —Daniel McCarthy

“There’s a larger pattern in American politics since the end of the Cold War that has held up no matter the differences between candidates and philosophies. Voters as a whole won’t give either party, or any set of ideologues, full, long-term control over their lives — not even enough control for coherent national policy in major areas like immigration and diplomacy.” —Daniel McCarthy

“To call Trump a bull in a china shop is unfair to the delicacy of bulls. When a bull traipses through the shop, the damage he causes is incidental; Trump intends to break things and force people to clean and fix them up. He knows what to break and what the remodel should look like. As often as not, he succeeds in getting things fixed and a gold-plated toilet installed.” —David Strom

And Last…

“There are legitimate policy disagreements about NATO and the Ukraine war, but there shouldn’t be any doubt about the larger significance of Vladimir Putin’s challenge to the West’s interests, values and resolve.” —Rich Lowry