The Patriot Post® · Friday Short Cuts

Insight: “A bureaucrat is the most despicable of men, though he is needed as vultures are needed, but one hardly admires vultures whom bureaucrats so strangely resemble. I have yet to meet a bureaucrat who was not petty, dull, almost witless, crafty or stupid, an oppressor or a thief, a holder of little authority in which he delights, as a boy delights in possessing a vicious dog. Who can trust such creatures?” —Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC)

Upright: “The problem today is not that religious people are trying to impose their views on nonreligious people, it’s the opposite — it’s that militant secularists are trying to impose their values on religious people and they’re not accommodating the freedom of religion of people of faith.” —U.S. Attorney General William Barr

For the record: “John Roberts did nothing while the FISA court which he personally oversees illegally spied on an American citizen. He did nothing when DOJ determined the court was defrauded. But when a senator asked a question? Roberts shut that down. Twice. What a disgraceful coward.” —Sean Davis

Braying jenny: “I don’t know how [Trump’s attorneys] can retain their lawyer status, in the comments that they’re making. I don’t think they made the case. I think they disgraced themselves terribly in terms of their violation of what our Constitution is about and what a president’s behavior should be.” —House Speaker Nancy Pelosi

Moving the goalposts: “You cannot be acquitted if you don’t have a trial. You don’t have a trial if you don’t have witnesses and documentation and all of that.” —Nancy Pelosi

A blast from the past: “The Senate may dismiss articles of impeachment without holding a full trial or taking any evidence. Put another way, the Constitution does not impose on the Senate the duty to hold a trial. In fact, the Senate need not hold a trial even though the House wishes to present evidence and hold a full trial.” —Sen. Joe Biden, January 5, 1999

Non compos mentis: “It’s not a partisan impeachment. … Even if it was a party-line vote.” —Joe Biden

Hyper hyperbole: “We are watching the crowning of the president with Mitch McConnell holding the crown.” —Sen. Mazie Hirono

Grand delusions: “Imagine Donald Trump deciding, sometime in June, ‘Well, I heard this conspiracy theory that a whole lot of illegal immigrants voted in California. So, I’ve decided that, during the presidential election, California has to undergo extreme vetting.’ This is literally the kind of thing he will do now. We’re not talking hypotheticals, anymore.” —MSNBC pundit Jason Johnson

Non sequitur: “January 31, 2020: Britain withdraws from Europe and America withdraws from the Constitution.” —University of Virginia professor Larry Sabato

Well actually…

And last… “Democrats embarked on an effort doomed to failure from the start, and [they’re] now shocked and outraged that it failed.” —Rich Lowry