Welcome to this week's edition of "The things people say." And what a week it was. From the presidential campaign trail to the legislature to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board, we could only shake our heads. To wit:

"I didn't even know she was a Democrat. I didn't look at party affiliation."

That was the eyebrow-raiser from school board vice chair Mary McCray after the board's Democrats voted as a bloc to appoint a little-known Democrat, Amelia Stinson-Wesley, to an open seat in a safe Republican district. It came after the board's eight members spent most of the week mulling and maneuvering, herding and horse-trading, over selecting one of 12 candidates for the seat representing southern Mecklenburg's District 6.

The process was intensely political, and the vote fell along party lines, yet McCray, a Democrat, claims to be oblivious to it all.

The seat came open when its holder, Republican Tim Morgan, was elected to an at-large seat in November. Of the 12 applicants, just two were Democrats. The Democrats' power play could portend two years of partisan politics on what is officially, but only officially, a nonpartisan board.

McCray was either fibbing or scarily uninformed.

"I am very suspect of early childhood education. I am very suspect of education in general."

Oh boy. Is that what you want to hear from a state legislator? More specifically, is that what you want to hear from a member of the House Select Committee on Early Childhood Education Improvement?

Rep. Tim Moffitt, a Republican and a management consultant from Asheville, said it during that committee's meeting Thursday morning, people who were there say. We'll hope he meant he's frustrated with the state of education right now and fervently hopes to improve it. We left a message for him Friday afternoon to find out. Given the 20 percent cut Republicans inflicted on pre-K education last year, though, it appears most Republicans have an odd sense of what 'improvement' means.

"I know it frustrates people but the legislature is not an 8-to-5 job."

No, it's not. Legislators actually jobbed the public at 1:12 a.m.

After calling an unannounced session to start at 12:45 a.m. Thursday, with no notice to the public and even fellow legislators in the dark (literally?) about what would be on the agenda, House Speaker Thom Tillis, R-Mecklenburg, claimed that Republicans have led with great transparency since taking charge last year. Seriously?

"I don't want to make black people's lives better by giving them somebody else's money; I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn the money."

Welcome to your 15 minutes of fame, Rick Santorum. With any luck, it won't last even that long. Presidential candidate Santorum made that uninformed statement to voters in Sioux City, Iowa, this week. One problem, Mr. Santorum: Only 9 percent of the people on food stamps in Iowa are black; 84 percent are white, CBS News found.