Quotes of the Week: They Said It, I Didn't edition

"And the banks - hard to believe in a time when we're facing a banking crisis that many of the banks created - are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. And they frankly own the place." - Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), immediately after the failure to pass S. 896, or the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act.

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"The results released today should provide considerable comfort to investors and the public. The examiners found that nearly all the banks that were evaluated have enough Tier 1 capital to absorb the higher losses envisioned under the hypothetical adverse scenario." - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke on announcing that 10 banks that failed the "stress test" would need "only" $75 billion more in taxpayer bailouts.

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"Do you realize that under our dynamic leadership of our leader, we have gone from 55 and probably to 40 (Senate seats) in two election cycles, and if the tea leaves that I read are correct, we will wind up with about 36 after this election cycle. So if leadership means anything, it means you don't lose... approximately 19 seats in three election cycles with good leadership." - Sen. Jim Bunning on Mitch McConnell's stewardship.

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“Do you know Arlen Specter will be 80, has had four bouts with cancer and he still wants to run for the U.S. Senate? And I’m being criticized at 77 and healthy for wanting to run for the U.S. Senate by certain leadership people in my party. Give me a break.” - Sen. Jim Bunning on Arlen Specter

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"Look, we can't go back out and start pointing fingers at Democrats and saying look how bad they're performing, look at what they're doing with the economy when we jumpstarted this thing. We were the ones that put the $700 billion on the table and said, all right, let's start nationalizing the banking system." - Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele

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"Phone lines around Washington began burning this morning as conservative organizations kicked off preparations for the fight over President Obama's eventual Supreme Court nominee... A group of more than 50 conservative groups held a conference call early Friday to begin plotting strategy, sources on the call said. Groups like the American Center for Law & Justice, the Coalition for a Fair Judiciary and the Committee for Justice will all prepare background research on potential nominees, setting up the eventual, inevitable attacks on the nominee as a left-wing extremist." - Reid Wilson, The Hill

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"From my own experience visiting the troops in the Middle East, I can tell you this, though: despite how the conflict has been portrayed by our glorious media, if you gave any U.S. soldier a gun with two bullets in it, and he found himself in an elevator with Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Osama bin Laden, there's a good chance that Nancy Pelosi would get shot twice, and Harry Reid and bin Laden would be strangled to death." - David Feherty, CBS golf analyst.