Below the fold are some outstanding quotes from the Southern Republican Leadership Conference general sessions.

[Note: excerpts do not include highlights from the Friday AM general session, including Alexander, Mehlman, Romney, Coleman and Vitter.]

A Few Good Ideas, a Few Points to Ponder

• Blackburn: If 10% is good enough for God it is for d*** sure good enough for Government.
• Watts: We are trudging dangerous waters in terms of health care. We can’t survive the annual increases in health care costs. Watts turns 65, gets on Medicare, $100,000 for quadruple bypass. Friends, that’s health care. We have to think about health. Why not pay people to be healthy? How about a $200 tax credit for those over 25 with cholesterol under 200.
• Watts: Friends, let me leave you with this: diversity of color is a good thing. We should not be afraid of it. God in his infinite wisdom made Haley Barbour and John McCain white men. God made JC Watts a black man. If anyone had any say in their skin color, please see me afterwards. God is an artist of a person’s skin color. God likes diversity of color.
• McCain: Bill Frist has done an outstanding job under the most partisan environment I have ever seen, trying to do the Lord’s work in the city of Satan.
• McCain: UAE — good friends of ours. 700 visits by Navy ships. Serviced by UAE personnel. Missions flown out of Dubai. We’re fighting two wars: one in the Middle East, a second for hearts and minds of the world. I would have at least offered the 45 day period. We need to make more friends in the Arab world.
• McCain: Iran may be the single greatest threat that American has faced since the end of the cold war, minus the terror war. If they acquire nukes, they threaten Isreal and entire U.S. Bush did right thing going to UN security council. What if China and Russia decide to veto? We’ll make it clear it will change our relations with those two nations if they do. We can’t take military option off the table, but will explore every other option. Consider the Israeli govt. Iran called for extinction of your nation. We will be steadfast and prevail.
• McCain: When we lost in Vietnam and left, they didn’t want to follow us. Zarquai – we leave Iraq and they’re coming after us.
• Allen: Congress can’t get all appropriations made in time because there’s no accountability. We ought to impose the paycheck penalty. Let’s tell Congress, if you fail to pass these bills, your paycheck will be withheld.
• Brownback: We believe in the separation of church and state, but not the removal of church from state.
• Brownback: By encouraging marriage we will reduce poverty. We shouldn’t shy away from defending this institution. Divorce rate = crisis in poverty. You can raise a good child as a single parent, but it becomes much more difficult. Marriage lifts children out of poverty.
• Brownback: We need to put forward a flat tax. We could leave the current tax code in place. Create an optional flat tax. No deductions. No credits. Let’s give people that choice.
• Graham: You sue somebody and lose – you pay.
• Graham: It’s harder for my bag to get through the airport than for an illegal immigrant to get into the country. If we don’t secure border, nothing else works.
• Graham: If you can find out what the Democrats are FOR, you’re a better person than I am.
• Huckabee: I just came back from Iraq, and if we’re losing, someone forgot to tell that to the soldiers who are actually sucking the sand and doing the work. You’ll have a hard time convincing them we’re losing.
• Huckabee: I’m still trying to learn the rules after 35 years of marriage, and I don’t want them changed now.
• Lott: We can’t shy away from immigration reform. We need border security, and we need it now. How do you get it? You just get to it. You fight back a Kennedy. And then you have a strange thing – it’s called a vote. We can secure our borders in America! If we do this, we’ll have a resounding victory in 2006.
• Perry: We can’t say that all is well with the majority, seeing deficits explode, entitlement programs taking over more of federal budget, a border that’s been left neglected and unprotected. Conservatives won the war at the ballot box but they ceded a lot of land back to the other side. Having built a Republican majority, it’s time for us to build a conservative majority.
• Perry: We know from intel that terrorists see the Texas border as an opportunity. If you’re picked up, and this disturbs me, chances are you’ll be placed on a bus, dropped off 125-150 miles inland and asked to show up, given a citation, and show up for a deportation hearing. They should play the Southwest airlines “ding – you are now free to move around the country.” The threat is today, and it’s growing each day. We need to keep them off American soil. Secure the border and you secure our future and our freedom.
• Hastert: We believe individuals can spend their money better than the federal government. Almost every policy we fight over, that is what the fight is about. Govt does 3 things we don’t agree on, legacy of new deal and great society: it taxes, regulates and litigates too much. Last year: real class action reform, bankruptcy reform, tax cuts – we’ll make them permanent this year. We can do the unspeakable: real tax reform in this country so we can change the IRS and change how we tax in this country.
• Frist: This May, I will bury the death tax once and for all. Freedom and opportunity are the building block. We’re called to lead on this principle. We’re party of fiscal discipline. Balanced budget is the cornerstone. Failure to balance burdens our children. These last 5 years we’ve been hit with unexpected challenges. They’re not justification for a wayward path of wasteful spending. Now is time to reaffirm our roots, beginning with the line item veto. No more bridges to nowhere. No more runaway entitlement spending. This is our toughest challenge. Our budget is already weighted toward entitlements. If we do nothing, in just 30 years we’ll not have a dime yet for anything else. At risk is the security of the American dream. GOP must lead. The place to begin is Medicare.

Focus on 2006 or 2008?

While Frist, Allen, Huckabee, Brownback and Romney were quite clearly focused on the next Presidential election, Senator McCain and others at least gave lip service to the importance of the mid-term elections.

• Huckabee: We’re here to convince you that nobody has any interest beyond the 2006 elections. We don’t know why people are going to New Hampshire, Iowa and South Carolina!
• Barbour: This is about 2006, not 2008! [The next presidential race is] a media frenzy, but ‘06 matters to us.
• McCain: Media views this as 2008 beauty contest. I’m older than dirt and I’ve got more scars than Frankenstein. We’ve got to focus on the problems at hand. Most immediate priority: 2006 mid-term election. We’ve got to win. We must remain focused on that.
• Hastert: We will grow our majority if you get out and help us. Turn out the votes.
• Davidson: We must rededicate ourselves to what needs to be done for 2006 election.
• Graham: I’m sorry we’re letting you down. We need to stand up and face our challenge. If not, we’ll be in trouble in 2006.