2000 Year in Review: Quotes of the year
-George Grob, deputy inspector general for the Health and Human Services Department.
February 16
"Unclesam.com doesn't give any stock options."
-Commerce Secretary William Daley, speaking Friday as he asked a group of students to consider public service-while indicating that he could understand why they might choose the private sector.
March 15
"No mission before its time."
-An internal NASA report's proposed replacement for the space agency's current motto, "faster, better, cheaper."
April 13
"Everything's wonderful with the IRS. I would say it's a 100 percent turnaround as far as I'm concerned. After they came in and took all my stuff that time, they've managed to be real nice."
-Country singer Willie Nelson, who has a long history of tax troubles, on IRS reform efforts.
May 31
"You seem to be bright. How can you be with the government?"
-Assistant Attorney General Joel Klein on what he was told by a student during an appearance at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
June 15
"We heard from all of these agencies, 'Oh we can't afford that. That's squeezing our turnip too tight. There's not enough blood left.' Yet we found these examples of this waste and inefficiency."
-House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, on GOP efforts to cut federal spending.
July 28
"This is the way Daffy Duck would do business on a bad day."
-David Obey, D-Wis., during debate on the combined fiscal 2001 Treasury-Postal and legislative branch appropriations bills.
August 3
"The combat zone of Washington turns a lot of people away. The atmosphere is absolutely poisonous."
-Former White House chief of staff Ken Duberstein on the upcoming presidential transition.
September 22
"If we don't see major improvement, the VA could be outsourced, it could be dismantled."
-Rep. Corrine Brown, D-Fla., at a House hearing on computer security problems at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
October 3
"Hopefully this the first step in making dot.gov as common as dot.com."
-Rep. Jim Turner, D-Texas, on the new federal Web portal FirstGov.
November 30
"We learned we had to do some of our homework better."
-Woody Hall, chief information officer at the Customs Service, on the need to gain support from stakeholders for large-scale IT projects.
December 15
"Let there be no doubt: while I strongly disagree with the Court's decision, I accept it."
-Vice President Al Gore on the Supreme Court decision that led to his concession of the 2000 Presidential election.