Just ran across two rather pithy turns of phrase that I have to pass on in the interest of preserving good political rhetoric.

First, the new governor of New Jersey, Richad Codey, recently dismissed suggests that his non-elected status should preclude him from pursuing much in the way of policy initiatives. On his first day in the job, he announced a task force to develop mental-health reforms. ?I?m an undertaker, not a caretaker,? he said.

Codey is a licensed undertaker and son of a funeral director.

Now, in National Review, a golden oldie. David Pryce-Jones, writing about the potential for Arabic peoples in Iraq and Palestine to overcome a historical legacy of absolutism, recalled this statement from the 19th century Egyptian strongman Muhammad Ali to English statesman Benjamin Disraeli: ?I will have as many parliaments as the king of England. But I have made up my mind, to prevent inconvenience, to elect them myself.?