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THEN: "I really do believe that we will be greeted as liberators."
DICK CHENEY, Vice President, on his expectations for the impending war with Iraq (March 16)

NOW: "He's broadcasting, 'Surrender, surrender, surrender,' and they ain't surrendering."
LIEUT. COLONEL JEFFERY RANDALL SANDERSON, commander of the 2nd Battalion, 69th Armor, on the failure of an appeal to Iraqis in Arabic over a loudspeaker in the town of Kifl (March 28)

THEN: "The best way to [have a short conflict is] to have such a shock on the system that the Iraqi regime would have to assume early on that the end is inevitable."
GENERAL RICHARD MYERS, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on how this conflict will differ from the previous Gulf War (March 5)

NOW: "This is going to take some time, and the tough part is yet ahead of us."
GENERAL RICHARD MYERS, on what to expect after the first week of battle (March 29)

THEN: "People have suggested the President is overreaching time and time again, and they have been proven wrong."
JOHN E. SUNUNU, New Hampshire Republican Senator, on Bush's budget plan, including a $726 billion tax-cut proposal (Feb. 5)

NOW: "I think the war has given everyone a more sober look at things than perhaps before."
GEORGE VOINOVICH, one of three Republican Senators who joined Democrats to cut the tax-cut proposal in half (March 26)

THEN: "I am gonna go door-to-door for Marty...[He] would like to get one of those golden guys."
HARVEY WEINSTEIN, co-chairman of Miramax Films, on his campaign to win an Oscar for Gangs of New York director Martin Scorsese (March 7)

NOW: "I'm happy to see others win. If we won them all, we'd be run out of town."
HARVEY WEINSTEIN, after Gangs came up empty, and Scorsese lost Best Director to Roman Polanski (March 25)

Sources: NBC's Meet the Press; New York Times; Christian Science Monitor; Washington Post (2); New York Times; ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY; USA Today