As they see it.

"Service to government is among one of the most honorable things one can do.... I am not interest. eel in partisan politics, where one party tries to kill the other or where people vote like they are told instead of voting their conscience.... Make the difference with your life. Be statesmen."

--Tennessee Senator John Wilder, who served as lieutenant governor for 36 years and is now serving his 44th year as senator, announcing that he will not run for re-election to the legislature next year.

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"As a former member, I have nothing but respect for Me Legislature. I want Me debate to be respectful, and I want Me public to understand that these are good people doing a hard job."

--Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning, apologizing for harsh remarks he made after the Legislature's Judiciary Committee killed an illegal immigration measure he backed, in the Omaha World-Herald.

"We're going to save more than we're going to spend. This is a broken system [health care] that will continue to spend and spend and never get better."

--New Jersey Senator Joseph Vitale, who has worked on a universal health care law for nearly two years with health-care experts, to the North New Jersey Record.

"A student cannot forget his finger."

--Beverly Blough, the director of food service in Wood County School District, which in 2003 became the first district in West Virginia to use finger scanners in school lunchrooms, to Stateline.org.

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