The Patriot Post® · Monday Short Cuts

The Gipper: “I’ve always believed that a lot of the trouble in the world would disappear if we were talking to each other instead of about each other.”

Upright: “If we want our government to function better, we should do the work of evaluating members of Congress more carefully, rather than using congressional elections as a proxy vote on our opinion of the president.” —Jay Cost

Political landscape: “Why do the Republicans have so few districts where they could win a Democrat-held seat? Because with a few exceptions, they already picked all the low-hanging fruit in 2010 and 2014, and held on to it through 2016. There just aren’t that many competitive districts represented by Democrats left.” —Jim Geraghty

Alpha Jackass: “You may be surprised to hear he’s a congressional candidate for Texas and not a hit-man in a porno movie. I’m sorry. I know he lost his eye in war — or whatever.” —"Saturday Night Live" “comedian” Pete Davidson, laughing at the eye patch worn by Dan Crenshaw, a former Navy SEAL who lost an eye in an explosion while serving in Afghanistan

Demo-gogues: “The latest jobs numbers may look good, but we must not forget they coexist with a huge deficit-ballooning GOP tax break that went mainly to the wealthy, for which we will pay a price for down the road. When the average family sees their health care costs go up because of Republican actions, these numbers will mean little.” —Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who led Democrats in assuring that everyone’s health care costs skyrocketed under ObamaCare

And last… “One of the (many) odd conceits of celebrityhood is the notion that the ability to sing or tell jokes or portray other characters somehow qualifies one to tell others how to vote. Not sure electricians or truckers or sales associates feel that way about themselves.” —Pat Sajak