Insight: “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” —Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919)

The bottom line: “Mr. Trump’s refusal to abide by the normal guardrails of presidential decorum is often offensive. It can also be risky — for himself and U.S. interests. We have often criticized him for it. But impeaching a President is voting to annul an election, and that should require far more evidence than we have from this Ukraine phone call.” —The Wall Street Journal

Food for thought: “This impeachment inquiry seems worse for Biden than it is for Trump. Now the Hunter Biden-Ukraine issue is on everyone’s radar AND we know that Democrats overstepped with their ‘quid pro quo’ accusation. Have to wonder whether they did this to help Warren/Sanders..?” —Rep. Dan Crenshaw

Good idea, but permanently: “Given the evidence of Trump using foreign aid to coerce foreign governments to aid Trump politically, Democrats in Congress should refuse to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank until after their inquiry is complete.” —Tim Carney

Braying jenny: “The president of the United States has betrayed our country. That’s not a political statement — it’s a harsh reality, and we must act. He is a clear and present danger to the things that keep us strong and free. I support impeachment.” —Hillary Clinton

Indefinite obstruction: “Simply to release the transcript is not going to come close to ending the need of the American public and the Congress to see what actually happened.” —Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer

Grand delusions: “Donald Trump is a traitor.” —Tom Steyer

And last… “Make the next president of the NRA a 15 year old. Then we’ll see how far that ‘how dare you cyber bully a teenager’ holds up with our media betters.” —Stephen Miller

From the Twittersphere

Supercut: If House GOP speechwriters get tired, they can always repackage these Democratic speeches from ‘98 pic.twitter.com/AdWXEVDdBW

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) September 25, 2019