Ogden, Perry, Dewhurst, Stallings, Metzger, and Jillson

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, to Amadeo Saenz, head of the Texas Department of Transportation, on extending public-private highway projects: "We're being asked to pass legislation more on faith than on fact. So far, faith has been very disappointing."

Gov. Rick Perry, telling reporters his intentions, before the session: "Get 'em in, get 'em out and get the work done. Bada-bing, bada-boom."

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, in the Austin American-Statesman: "If the [U.S.] Senate job came open, I would probably give it a hard look. I think that seat needs to stay in Republican hands."

Texas A&M Regent Gene Stallings, quoted in the Bryan Eagle after the faculty overwhelmingly cast a vote of no confidence in Chancellor Mike McKinney: "He may have mishandled a quote or two, as we all do from time to time, but his mind's in the right place and his heart's in the right place."

Merrill Metzger, formerly with Minutemen American Defense — a citizen border patrol group — in The New York Times: "I had to take an oath, and part of the oath was that I couldn't eat Mexican food. That's when red flags went up all over for me. That seemed like prejudice."

Cal Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University, talking about the next presidential race with the Washington Examiner: "It's way too early to talk sensibly about the 2012 field, but that's no reason not to do it."