Many of you are making insightful comments that would be easier to follow if you would include the statement you're responding to. (Pretty please?!)
If you don't want to mess with the HTML italics, you could just use symbols. Examples:
**(statement)** or << (statement) >>
2,588 posted on 10/05/2004 6:42:47 PM PDT by Nita Nupress
("We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good." Hillary Clinton, 6/28/04)