Here at the glass-enclosed nerve center of Extreme Mortman, we don’t wait until the end of the year to run our top ten funniest lists.  No, come end of June, we dive right in.  Yes, we’re that bold.  Fortunately, so far 2008 has given us a wealth of material to work with.  The challenge was trimming, not scrambling.  So without further introduction — after all, there’s not much more you can say about a top ten list — here’s the top ten funniest political quotes so far in 2008.

10. Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR):

“Tyler Duvall is a little pointy-headed neocon with grand ideas about the future of transportation, and they all involve tolling. He’s bright, young, energetic — just totally wrong, and has a bizarre, neocon view of transportation.”

9. Barack Obama:

“I am absolutely certain that, generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless. .  .  . This was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.”

8. Hillary Clinton:

“The last time I looked, Virginia had more sunny days than Germany.”

7. Al Gore:

“If you care about food safety, if you like a T on your BLT, you know that elections matter.”

6. Mike Huckabee, on what squirrel tastes like:

“It tastes like squirrel.”

5.  Larry King’s questions to his panel discussing Eliot Spitzer:

• “Under what circumstances, Jason, did you first connect with her?”
• “How successful was she when she went to work for you? How successful was she at what she did?”
• “Because someone is physically beautiful, does that mean they would be a good prostitute?”
• “Not wanting to wear a condom. What would it be to you, Babydol?”
• “How does the escort feel, Kathleen?”
• “And, apparently, it’s going to get, if the term is right, more huge”
• “Kathleen, is this going to be bigger and bigger, do you think?”
• “Natalie, do any hookers ever marry their johns?”

4. Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA):

“I’m not going to discuss what I played with this morning.”

3.  Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE), hearing testimony from Gen. David Petraeus:

PETRAEUS: Senator, the vice president was in Iraq just a couple weeks after that, and he also had a very warm reception.
BIDEN: Did he get kissed? Get a kiss?
PETRAEUS: I believe he did get kissed when he was there.
BIDEN: I just want to know whether he got kissed, that’s all.

2.  Chris Matthews:

“It’s part of reporting this case, this election, the feeling most people get when they hear Barack Obama’s speech. My, I felt this thrill going up my leg. I mean, I don’t have that too often.”

1.  Bill Clinton:

“The country is groaning and moaning and screaming for change to turn this country around and get it working again.”