GovernmentExecutive.com

By far, the most effective way for government to prevent ethical and legal abuses within its ranks is not to focus myopically on individual instances of wrongdoing as they occur, but to imbue one’s workforce with an affirmative, all-permeating sense of integrity -- to shine a light of excellence that dispels the shadows from which malfeasance sprouts.

(Hat tip: IEC Journal.)

"You know when you're a kid and you're growing up and you hear there'll be a cure for this and a cure for that, and who's in charge of that? You would think with the possibilities especially now we have, with all the technology, ... and the $100 billion that government and the private sector put into this stuff every year, you'd think that there'd be a Department of Cures, a Secretary of Cures. But there isn't."

Actor and Parkinson's research advocate Michael J. Fox in an appearance at a conference on philanthropy sponsored by Slate.

"I appreciate that the man who has managed Iraq so well is going to give us a lecture about management. The man who gave us Katrina is going to tell us how to manage?"

President Bush, in his radio address Saturday:

Today I am signing emergency legislation to fund the federal government for the next seven weeks. This legislation was necessary because Congress failed in its most basic responsibility: to pass the spending bills that fund the day-to-day operations of the government. There are 12 of these bills this year, and Congress did not complete a single one of them, so Congress had to send me a stop-gap measure before the fiscal year ends this Sunday at midnight.

"If I'm elected president, I'm going to cap non-defense discretionary spending at inflation minus one percent. That would save $300 billion in 10 years. And if Congress sends me a budget that exceeds that cap, I will veto that budget. And I know how to veto. I like vetoes. I've vetoed hundreds of spending appropriations as governor."

--GOP presidential candidate and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney in a campaign commercial unveiled earlier this year.

"China has failed. … The Consumer Product Safety Commission has failed by not providing adequate resources and staff, and Congress has failed," he said. "There are moments when we need government."

--Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., on proposals to increase the staff and budget of the CPSC in the wake of recent revelations about unsafe imported toys.

"Everybody wants to come to the fight, so to speak, and no one wants to step back and say 'No, I can't do this.' The final coup de grace was the World Trade Center. Hundreds came that were never asked. Good intentions, good hearts, and it was extremely difficult for the fire department and the other departments to deal with them."

--Deputy Assistant U.S. Fire Administrator Charlie Dickinson on a federal plan to create an ID program for rescue workers to prevent civilians from flocking to disaster scenes.

"Someone who was actually an addict is probably not going to satisfy our needs."

--Jeffrey J. Berkin, deputy assistant director of the FBI's security division, on new guidelines allowing the agency to hire analysts, programmers and special agents who have a history of occasional drug use, as long as they swear they haven't used any illegal substances lately.

"People with disabilities should be able to eat at their favorite establishments, and this agreement is designed to improve access to 20,000 Subway shops across the nation."

--Wan J. Kim, assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, on a Justice Department settlement under the Americans With Disabilities Act that is designed to make 20,000 Subway sandwich shops physically accessible to people with disabilities.

“As much as we would like to think otherwise, I am afraid that with the number of soldiers we now have in harm’s way, our losses will preclude us from continuing to do individual memorial ceremonies.”

--Brig. Gen. William Troy, former interim commander at Fort Lewis, Wash., in a May e-mail message announcing that the base would shift from holding separate memorial services for each soldier killed in action after deploying from the base to holding combined services once a month. That policy has been delayed after soldiers' families and veterans protested it, the New York Times reports.

"Have you met Karl Rove?"

"Oh, yeah, I'd much rather use a stick that was invented 71 years ago. Twenty years before NASA? That's great."

Golf pro Phil Mickelson, sarcastically endorsing the "Stimpmeter," which is traditionally used to measure the speed of golf greens, over the "Pelzmeter," a more high-tech device developed by Mickelson adviser Dave Pelz, a former NASA employee.

"My goal in life is to get the federal government down to half its present size and under control and then I can write murder mysteries."

Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, and longtime government critic, in an interview with the Washington Post.

“There were no Americans being shot at the Interior Department in 1995.”

--Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., to the New York Times on the difference between the clash involving House Republicans and President Clinton over shutting down the federal government in 1995, and the current dispute between the Democratic Congress and President Bush over Iraq war policy.

"The problems at Walter Reed were caused by bureaucratic and administrative failures. The system failed you, and it failed our troops. And we're going to fix it."

--President Bush in an address to caregivers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center today.

"Put your big-girl panties on."

--Education Secretary Margaret Spellings' advice to White House Deputy Press Secretary Dana Perino, upon learning that Perino would temporarily take over for Bush spokesman Tony Snow while he undergoes treatment for colon cancer.

"I think that every Cabinet official has to ask themselves every day, 'Is it still appropriate for me to lead a Cabinet department?' It's something that I've been asking myself more lately than perhaps others."

After the war itself, fixing the problems associated with care for our wounded must be our highest priority. I believe it's important that we look at this from the perspective of the serviceman or -woman, and not from the perspective of the bureaucracy.