VERBATIM

"We're being threatened with death." HUGO CHAVEZ, President of Venezuela, in a televised speech accusing the Bush Administration of plotting his assassination

"He's an ass." GEORGE H.W. BUSH, former President, on Chávez, who called his son George W. Bush "the devil" during a speech to the U.N. General Assembly last month

"That's all you guys do is read these books. You ought to get a life." DONALD RUMSFELD, U.S. Defense Secretary, when asked about the questions raised recently concerning his competence--such as those in State of Denial, Bob Woodward's new book on the Bush Administration in the run-up to the Iraq war

"There are nightclubs in New York City that are harder to get into than some of our chemical plants." ED MARKEY, Democratic Congressman from Massachusetts and member of the House Homeland Security Committee, after President Bush signed a $1.2 billion homeland-security bill that many Democrats think is too meager

"I'll have any suite I want." NANCY PELOSI, House minority leader, on which office she would occupy in the Capitol if the Democrats take the House in November

"They have skinny bones." KARL LAGERFELD, German fashion designer, shrugging off concerns about too skinny models and arguing that most models are naturally thin. He said the rise of obesity in many countries, including France, is a more serious problem

Sources: AP; Larry King Live; AP (3); Reuters

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