Please Pass the Buck ...

“The practice of medicine knows no time cards.”

-- Lawrence Silver, attorney for Dr. George Locke, head of neurosurgery at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, in a letter to The Times quoted last week. Locke’s time card claimed he was at work for 26 hours one day, when he actually logged 6 1/2 .

“I didn’t write it; I didn’t approve it; I wasn’t even consulted.”

-- Ernest J. Istook Jr. (R-Okla.), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee’s Transportation and Treasury Subcommittee, in a news release blaming staff members for a provision that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist called the “Istook Amendment.” The disputed amendment, which would have allowed congressional leaders access to anyone’s tax returns, was included in the mammoth spending bill passed last month. It was removed last week.

“You have to look at protecting the institution.... We’re trying to raise the standard, to make it so that you don’t allow what is purely a political indictment to make someone step aside from a leadership role.”

-- Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), quoted in Newsday last month about House Republicans’ decision to reverse their rule banning indicted members from holding leadership positions. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay may be indicted in a campaign finance probe.

“I never asked Greg. When he said it was flaxseed oil, I just said, ‘Whatever.’ ”

-- Barry Bonds, testifying before the grand jury investigating the BALCO doping scandal, in transcripts reviewed by the San Francisco Chronicle earlier this month. The seven-time National League MVP claimed he thought the products that trainer Greg Anderson provided him were legal remedies for arthritis and fatigue.

-- Compiled by Joe Robinson