Verbatim: Sep. 6, 2004

"I don't think you give timelines to dictators." GEORGE W. BUSH, on dealing with the illicit nuclear-weapons programs of the Iranian and North Korean regimes

"If you believe that the intelligence community is doing just fine, thank you, then obviously this is not your bill." PAT ROBERTS, Senate Intelligence Committee chairman, on his proposal to overhaul the nation's intelligence agencies

"We have to be careful about it ... You don't want, in the middle of a war, to go tearing up the pea patch." DONALD RUMSFELD, Defense Secretary, on Senator Roberts' proposal

"We found a string of failures ... fundamental failures throughout all levels of command, from the soldiers on the ground to the Central Command and to the Pentagon." TILLIE FOWLER, a member of James Schlesinger's panel investigating the prison abuses in Iraq

"To all my brothers in the Mahdi Army ... you should leave Kufa and Najaf without your weapons, along with the peaceful masses." MUQTADA AL-SADR, Shi'ite cleric, in a recorded statement, after agreeing to a peace deal brokered by Iraq's top Shi'ite spiritual leader, Grand Ayatullah Ali Husaini Sistani, to end three weeks of fighting between U.S. and Iraqi troops, and al-Sadr's Mahdi militia

"You'd be amazed at the number of people who want to introduce themselves to you in the men's room." JOHN KERRY, Democratic presidential candidate, on Comedy Central, about life on the campaign trail

"If things go right, I'll be there about a week, and if things don't go right, I'll be there about an hour and a half." RODNEY DANGERFIELD, before surgery to replace a valve in his heart; he survived the procedure

Sources: New York Times (2); AP; New York Times; AP; Comedy Central; AP