As they see it.

• Position: Quotation - Brief article

"We're very proud of the way government is now functioning in Albany.... a breath of fresh air to all of us."

--New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D) describing this year's smooth budget process, in The New York Times.

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"The real problem is that Massachusetts has first-colony envy."

--Virginia Representative Morgan H. Griffith (R), to the Washington Post, questioning the accuracy of Massachusetts' claim that Salem is the birthplace of the U.S. National Guard.

"It conjured up a lot of things for me that weren't very comfortable--not fear, but sometimes we get to thinking things are settled."

--Idaho Representative Cherie Buckner-Webb (D), the state's only African American lawmaker, after receiving a mailing from the Ku Klux Klan, by the Associated Press in the Idaho Statesman

"I was that poor minority child growing up. if it weren't for the threat of being held up, I might not have put that extra effort forward so that I could move on to the next grade."

--Colorado Representative Robert Ramirez (R) during debate on a bill to require schools to hold back 3rd graders who can't read, in the...