From Friday night’s Fox News All-Stars.

On Rahm Emanuel’s departure:

He was not just any chief of staff. He got through major legislation that‘s going to change America.
I think Obamacare alone, if the presidency were to end tomorrow, it would make it an historic administration because I think it‘s put us inevitably and inexorably on the road to national health care. That’s a major achievement if you’re a liberal. And he did it. That was his job.
Interestingly, he was one of the architects of the largeness of all this. Remember, at the inauguration, early on in the administration he said: A crisis is a terrible thing to waste, meaning with America on its back, it would be like the early years of the New Deal, you could change America because the population, the electorate would be passive and receptive.
Well, he wasn’t exactly right, but it was an architecture to do great social reforms quickly. And they succeeded in doing it.
Now, after the message of the off-year elections — where they lost in Virginia and in New Jersey and especially in Massachusetts — Rahm wanted to rein it in and go small. Obama said no, we’re going to double down, but Rahm actually got it done. And I think that’s historic in and of itself.

On whether President Obama eventually will bring aboard a chief of staff with business experience:

He should, but he won’t. This is a man who really is extremely self-possessed. I’m talking about the president here. He does not have a lot of doubts about himself or his world-historical importance, and he wants somebody [as chief of staff] who’ll do his bidding. And that means somebody he trusts.
He’s not going to have to go outside as a way to pump up his administration or to get legitimacy from the outside the way, say, a Reagan did late in the administration when he had Iran Contra and needed Howard Baker to come in and re-legitimize the administration. That’s not Obama. He believes in himself; he just wants somebody who’ll do his bidding.

On the New Black Panther Party voter intimidation scandal:

I think there is a lot at stake here. This isn’t only a case of intimidation or a case perhaps of perjury. This is a case of race neutrality and the administration of the laws in the Justice Department.
If you work for a private advocacy group, you have every right to say: I didn’t come here to defend white folks against intimidation, only black folks. That’s perfectly reasonable. But if you are in the administration, you are in the federal government, you are in the Justice Department, you cannot say that or think it — and if you do, you should be canned.

On the White House report that the stimulus has seen little waste and abuse:

The fact it’s a White House conclusion is — next week we will hear that Derek Jeter is doing balls and strikes in Yankee games.