“If I did run for office and win, I’d serve out my term. I wouldn’t leave office mid-term.”

— Karl Rove, on Fox News, slapping back at Sarah Palin’s criticism of GOP consultants who “keep losing elections.”

Byron York: “If there was any villain at the just-completed Conservative Political Action Conference, it was the generic figure of the Republican political consultant. Overpaid, unprincipled, always on the lookout for the next client — or easy mark — the consultants, to listen to a number of CPAC speakers, have helped bring the Republican Party to its current low state.”

“The two non-candidates most mentioned in the consultant hall of shame
were Karl Rove, the former Bush White House aide who has recently formed
a group that he says will find more electable Republican candidates,
and Stuart Stevens, the top adviser to the Romney campaign.”

Michael Tackett: “For more than a decade, Republicans have looked to Karl Rove for the solution. Now, a growing number see him as the problem.”

Maggie Haberman: “After his electoral wipeout in November — and motivated by years of
resentment that’s spilling over — Rove’s credibility within his own
party is at an all-time low.”

“I can’t just live my life going on TV and being angry all the time.”

— Bay Buchanan, quoted by the Washington Examiner, on leaving politics to become a real estate agent.

James Carter IV, the freelance researcher and grandson of former President Jimmy Carter “who became a minor campaign celebrity after unearthing the now-infamous video of Mitt Romney railing against 47 percent of Americans at a private fundraiser has used his political fame to start his own opposition research firm,” BuzzFeed reports.

Deadspin: “You’re going to hear a lot about ‘shared sacrifice’ from the NHL in the days and weeks to come. That’s the word from inside a secret emergency PR focus group, in which a top Republican Party strategist tested pro-ownership messages on a captive audience of hockey fans. One of those fans shared the documents with us, for a sneak preview of the propaganda campaign the NHL will be unloading on the public as the lockout drags on.”

“There is nothing appealing about him at all. The rule prohibits me to disclose names, but his initials are Dick Morris.”

— James Carville, in an interview with Politico, on his least favorite person in Washington, D.C.