Observations: “With organic divisions comes gridlock, and with gridlock comes an enticement to act outside the process. So, one hopes that Trump’s nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch and judges elsewhere who take both separation of power and the dangers of the administrative state seriously will help mitigate some of this future abuse. … For those who argue that all of this is nothing more than a malevolent effort to sabotage the Obama administration’s accomplishments, perhaps there is a lesson to be learned: Your legacy is going to be a rickety mess if you build it using imperious diktats rather than consensus.” —David Harsanyi

Upright: “It strains all credulity to think that Donald Trump wasn’t trying to be sympathetic and empathetic in that phone call. … The idea that he wasn’t somehow going into this in good faith just strikes me as bizarre and false on its face.” —Jonah Goldberg

Braying Jenny: “You mean to tell me that I’ve become so important that the White House is following me and my words? This is amazing. That’s amazing. I’ll have to tell my kids that I’m a rock star now.” —Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL) laughing it up after she politicized Trump’s phone call to a grieving widow

Exactly: “Well, I don’t know the answer to that.” —Sen. Bernie Sanders when pressed by Sen. Ted Cruz, “What is the difference between a socialist and a Democrat on taxes?”

Novel concept: “I grew up in a time when it was as much the woman’s responsibility as a man’s — how you were dressed, what your behavior was. I’m from the old school that you can have behaviors that appear to be inviting. It can be interpreted as such. That’s the responsibility, I think, of the female.” —Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX)


Non Compos Mentis: “[James Comey’s] an honest guy, and the determination that he made [regarding Clinton’s malfeasance] … is based on the facts, based on his interpretation of the law, and it was nothing more than that. It was a good-faith assessment by a person who I think has done a lot for this country.” —Eric Holder

And last… “2004 Dems: Bush is Hitler. 2012 Dems: Romney killed a woman with cancer. 2017 Dems: Why can’t Trump be like Bush or Mitt?” —Twitter satirist @hale_razor