Verbatim

"Dick Cheney can be President. Next?" PRESIDENT BUSH, in response to a reporter's question on how Senator John Edwards, the Democratic vice-presidential candidate, stacks up beside Vice President Dick Cheney

"He was right that Dick Cheney was ready to take over on Day One. And he did, and he has been ever since." JOHN KERRY, responding to Bush's comment at a campaign rally the same day

"Everybody made a mistake, and they are embarrassed, and they have apologized for it, and it happens even on NBC sometimes." RUPERT MURDOCH, in an interview with CNBC after the New York Post, which he owns, ran a front-page story erroneously announcing that Kerry had chosen Dick Gephardt as his running mate. The paper corrected itself the next day. The New York Times later quoted an unnamed Post employee as saying the false tip was called in by Murdoch

"I have to accept we haven't found them and we may not find them." BRITISH PRIME MINISTER TONY BLAIR, stalwart defender of the war in Iraq, on the failure to locate any weapons of mass destruction

"We could take the city, but we would have to kill everyone in it." MOHAMMED ABDULLAH AL-SHAHWANI, Iraq's director of national intelligence, on the difficulty of dealing with stubborn insurgents in the city of Fallujah

"Are we stretched thin with our active and reserve-component forces right now? Absolutely." GENERAL RICHARD A. CODY, new Army vice chief of staff, assessing U.S. troop strength at a congressional hearing

"Fame is addictive. Money is addictive. Attention is addictive. But golf is second to none." MARC ANTHONY, singer who recently wed Jennifer Lopez, on his purchase of a $22,000 set of Honma irons from Japan

Sources: AP; CNN; New York Times; AP; New York Times (2); Golf magazine