Keffer, Middleton, Strama, Eltife, Mattlage, Bush, Strayhorn, and Beatty Rep. Jim Keffer, R-Eastland, in the Brownwood Bulletin: "A lot of people are offering criticism. They see a problem and they want a solution. Coming from the business community, I understand that. That's how I like to work. But government is different." Later in that same story: "It appears property tax reduction is not a statewide issue. It's a big issue in some places, but not so much in others. Then when people find out what will happen with the tax shift to make property tax reduction work -- keeping it revenue neutral -- a lot of the glamour goes out of it." North East ISD Superintendent Richard Middleton, in the San Antonio Express-News: "Those people -- and the speaker especially -- see public education as a liability, not as an asset. They don't see it as something that's worth keeping and nurturing and developing. They want to find anything else that's cheaper." Rep. Mark Strama, D-Austin, quoted by News 8 Austin: "I can imagine, from the outside, people must be scratching their heads wondering what we're doing here because many of us on the inside are scratching our heads wondering what we're doing here." Sen. Kevin Eltife, R-Tyler, assessing the Legislature in the Tyler Morning Telegraph: "The buck stops here, with all of us, as elected officials. Every one of us shares responsibility for failure. I told my constituents we failed them on this issue in regular session and we have failed them again. To blame the education lobby or business lobby or anyone else for that matter is not right. All the finger pointing, blaming and political posturing should stop." Larry Mattlage of Crawford, a neighbor of the president, on the anti-war protesters camped next to his property, in The Dallas Morning News: "They're just like company. If you had had your brother-in-law in your house for five days, wouldn't it start stinking after a while?" President George W. Bush, asked about Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a dead U.S. soldier who's camped outside Bush's Texas property protesting the war in Iraq: "I think it's important for me to be thoughtful and sensitive to those who have got something to say. But I think it's also important for me to go on with my life, to keep a balanced life." Comptroller and gubernatorial candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn, talking to the Greater Houston Pachyderm Club (a GOP group) about illegal immigrants, quoted by the Associated Press: "I sympathize with those coming over who want to put a roof over their heads. We can't turn them away from the hospital steps." Democratic consultant Leland Beatty, talking to the Austin American-Statesman about candidates like Strayhorn trying to pull Democratic voters into the Republican primary: "You're changing people's behavior. You're trying to get the deacon to go to the porn movie." 

Perry, Craddick, and Dewhurst Gov. Rick Perry, asked about the crumbling relations between the leaders of the House and Senate: "We do not need to be involved in attacks personally. We have a state to run." House Speaker Tom Craddick: "If I was a teacher in the state of Texas I would not be real happy with the school superintendents and administrators... they could have had a pay raise. Teachers in this state have lost a lot of money." Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst: "I can't help but say I'm disappointed with the lack of action in the House on meaningful school finance reform." Craddick: "I do not want the Supreme Court to write a plan for Texas. I think they can clear up this myth that's out there from the school districts that they're going to get five, seven, eight billion [dollars] a year. We don't believe that's going to happen." Dewhurst: "One of the things that I will be sore on for a long time is the amount of influence special interests have in this Legislature." Perry, in The Dallas Morning News: "There has been too much focus by the House and Senate on who gets credit, whose plan wins, who can go back and say we out-negotiated him, we won. The fact of the matter is nobody's winning. Everybody's losing." Dewhurst: "The governor asked us to be here for 30 days. He hasn't asked us to stop." Craddick: "We were called in for the 30 days, and I was the one that thought we ought to adjourn earlier, and no one else wanted to do that. So we're just going to stay the 30 days." Perry, telling the Houston Chronicle that the time spent in Austin this summer wasn't wasted: "To say that would suggest that all government is a waste. Austin comes together and faces issues as a state. Am I frustrated that the Legislature has not been able to come to agreement on this issue? Yes. I'm totally unsatisfied."