As they see it.

• Position: Quotation

I don't think anybody anticipated the consequences of a three-term career. You spend your first term locking down your district, the second term trying to do some policy initiatives and your third term looking over your shoulder to see where you're going next."

--Michigan Representative Fred Miller, who will face term limits in 2010, in the Detroit Free Press.

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"It's not whether we agree or disagree with the law. It's just what we have to do."

--Pennington County, South Dakota Auditor Julie Pearson, about how she found herself in the uncomfortable position of setting Florence Steen's ballot aside as invalid after she died, even though the 88-year-old had always dreamed of voting for a woman president, in the Rapid City Journal.

"It's called the HOPE scholarship program, not the best-and-brightest scholarship. It was never meant to be an academic scholarship."

--Tennessee House Majority Leader Gary Odom during discussion about lowering the minimum grade point average from 3.0 to 2.75 to qualify for the scholarship, in Tennessean.com. The bill passed.

"Lawmakers fall into the category of people who sometimes become targets."

--South Carolina Representative Todd Rutherford, to The State, about lawmakers who carry weapons. Rutherford doesn't have a concealed-weapons permit, but keeps a Glock handgun in his...