Top 10 Quotes of the Week 2010

1) "I should have shot him when I had the chance."

– Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, quoted in Quorum Report, after learning he had drawn former state Sen. Hector Uribe as a challenger in the general election. The two had minor roles in The Alamo, filmed near Austin. (Jan. 8, 2010, issue.)

2) "I came in here this morning thinking we were going to be ready to make a decision. Now this e-mail does muddle things for us."

– Travis County Judge Sam Biscoe (above), after learning that the Army Corps of Engineers may subject the TXI aggregate mining project at Hunters Bend to a full permitting review (Jan. 15)

3) "Seriously, can we hunt these people down and muzzle them?"

– An unnamed Farouk Shami campaign staffer, venting anger in an e-mail (inadvertently sent to reporters) over unauthorized press statements sent out by people within the Shami camp (Feb. 19)

4) "[T]his is a place with a highly inflated sense of self-importance ...."

– Joseph Stack's assessment of Austin, in a manifesto written before he rammed his aircraft into a building housing the IRS (Feb. 26)

5) "Thank goodness for Lubbock!"

– Education Austin's then-President Louis Malfaro, announcing that Austin Independent School District, the fifth largest district in Texas, ranks 49th out of the Top 50 districts in terms of teacher pay (April 2)

6)"My heart's really here."

– Police Chief Art Ace­ve­do (r), explaining his decision to withdraw his bid for Dallas police chief and continue his service in Austin (April 30)

7) "And if anything I said ... has been misconstrued to the opposite effect, I want to apologize for that misconstrued misconstruction."

– Texas Rep. Joe Barton, mangling an apology for apologizing to BP's CEO for a "$20 billion shakedown" at the White House (June 25)

8) "The program is no longer geared toward protecting rare gems and has turned into a racket that the wealthy are manipulating to avoid taxes."

– Alfred Stanley, in an e-mail follow-up to his comments to Travis County commissioners on historic property tax exemptions (July 16)

9) "The premise that somehow if we go to trial we're going to gain more transparency is just simply not true."

– Council Member Sheryl Cole (above), before casting her vote for a $750,000 settlement with the family of police shooting victim Nathaniel Sanders II (Aug. 6)

10) "... because it was laundered."

– Assistant District Attorney Gary Cobb's oft-repeated retort to the ultimately unsuccessful argument – put forth by defense attorney Dick DeGuerin during the Tom DeLay trial – that "no corporate money went to candidates in Texas" (Dec. 3)