Insight: “History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.” —Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969)

Village Idiots: “The wall to me is ominous. It reminds me too much of the Berlin Wall. When I see that 30-foot wall I worry somehow, ‘Are they trying to keep me in or keep them out?’ … We’ll do the right, human[e], and I would even say Christian thing from my point of view.” —California Gov. Jerry Brown

Non Compos Mentis: “We must all accept that there is a possibility we will never understand why [the London Islamist] did this. That understanding may have died with him.” —Neil Basu, Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police

Regulatory Commissars: “We do believe that an estate tax is an appropriate thing. If you don’t have one, basically all you do is guarantee an aristocracy where one rich guy passes it on to his kids and so on down the line, but we also believe that there could be something with a transactions tax. The United States used to have one. Many states around the world have them.” —Keith Ellison

Braying Jenny: “I’m out to get [Trump]. … I’m gonna see him out of office. And I think it’s going to happen. Get ready for impeachment.” —Maxine Waters

Soul searching: “Talking to a friend at lunch not long ago, he expressed his amazement that the House and Senate leadership didn’t have bills ‘lined up like airplanes on a runway’ ready to take off in the new year. I was surprised, too. … The congressional GOP’s failure to deliver on its promises is one of the things that led to the election of President Trump. Now they’re still failing. What comes next?” —Glenn Reynolds

And last… “If tax reform is going to pass and get signed into law, Republicans will have to perform much better than in the foreshortened health care debate. On the bright side, they can’t perform much worse.” —Rich Lowry