New Coke was announced on April 23, 1985, with the company’s president piling on adjectives usually reserved for Lafite Rothschild — “smoother, rounder yet bolder.” Almost 80 days later, the public having sampled it, the company pulled the product from stores. Perhaps Thompson’s candidacy will last longer than New Coke did.

— syndicated columnist George Will on former senator Fred Thompson’s entry into the presidential campaign sweepstakes.

I don’t think Margaret Thatcher would impugn the integrity of a commanding general in a time of war, as Hillary Clinton did, or require an army to give a schedule of their retreat to the enemy, as the Democrats are suggesting.

— presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, who this week will “give the inaugural Margaret Thatcher lecture, organised by the Atlantic Bridge think tank. He will be awarded the Margaret Thatcher medal of freedom by the original Iron Lady, 81, who is revered by American conservatives.” (See photos of candidate Giuliani and Mrs. Thatcher.)

The extremists on the left and the extremists on the right have essentially the same tactic … the NRA’s, in essence, defense of assault weapons, and their unwillingness to deal with some of the realities here that we face in our cities is a terrible, terrible mistake.

— then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani in a 1995 interview with PBS’s Charlie Rose.

To Mayor Giuliani with thanks for your help on the assault weapons legislation. Bill Clinton.

— inscription on a photograph of gun-control advocates President Bill Clinton and then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

[T]his is an industry which profits from the suffering of innocent people. The lawsuit is intended to end the free pass that the gun industry has enjoyed for a very long time, which has resulted in too many avoidable deaths.

— then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani in 2000, announcing New York City’s lawsuit against against Colt, Glock, Smith & Wesson and other gun manufacturers.

Rudy Giuliani is a strong supporter of the Second Amendment. When he was Mayor of a city suffering an average of almost 2000 murders a year, he protected people by getting illegal handguns out of the hands of criminals. As a result, shootings fell by 72% and the murder rate was cut by two-thirds. But Rudy understands that what works in New York doesn’t necessarily work in Mississippi or Montana.

— excerpt from “issues” portion of the Web site of presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani.

Mr. King: On Friday, you’ll give a speech back in the States to the National Rifle Association. Back in the Clinton administration, you sat in the front row when the president signed into law the Assault Weapons Ban. That law has since expired. Back at that time in ‘95, you said the NRA was going, quote, “way overboard” in its opposition to the Assault Weapon Ban…Are you willing to now go before that group and say, There are cases where you must not go, quote, “way overboard?”

Mr. Giuliani: Well, sure, we’re at a different time, now. And we’re in a different situation. I mean, the reality is that I always believed that it made the most sense for state and local governments to deal with this, that we should do everything we can to reduce crime. The programs that I had just begun back then have now turned out to be even more successful than I thought they would be, which largely focused on people who were using guns, and to treat them in a way in which we had zero tolerance for them.

— from Sept. 19 exchange between CNN’s John King and presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani.

We take into consideration a candidate’s past record and what they’re saying now and what they’ll do in the future.

— Andrew Arulanandam, spokesman for the National Rifle Association, whose membership will be addressed Friday by presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani as he seeks the NRA’s endorsement during the group’s “Celebration of American Values” convention.

Q: Dana, the President today called for the Foreign Intelligence wiretap law to be made permanent, but what is the White House willing to do to address the concerns of Democrats that this law, as it’s currently written, could be used to search Americans’ homes, their mail, their business records?

MS. PERINO: I know that that has been one of the concerns that the Democrats have expressed. I do think it’s unfounded. That is not how we interpret the legislation. It’s not anything that we are utilizing. This is very specific parts of the law in order to gather foreign intelligence to make sure we close an intelligence gap that had opened up once the technology had changed, but the law hadn’t since 1978.

— exchange between reporter and press secretary Dana Perino during a Sept. 19 White House press briefing.

I think the overwhelming majority of members of Congress, both Republican and Democrat, are honorable people. Once in a while, there are examples to the contrary. And as you know, there’s at least one prominent Democratic example in the House of Representatives. Another Democrat, I think, under investigation. I don’t think either party is necessarily more troubled by this than the other one.

— Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, in a Sept. 7 New York Times story, downplaying partisan aspects of ethically challenged members of Congress.

Quotabull is a weekly feature of Scholars & Rogues appearing Thursdays.