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(Continued from page 16)
"The thing is, if you control the Senate meetings, you control the gavel. And the gavel is a very important instrument...an instrument of power. An instrument that establishes the agenda."
-- J. Danforth Quayle, Republican Vice-President
"Hawaii is a unique state. It is a small state. It is a state that is by itself. It is a --it is different from the other 49 states. Well, all states are different, but it's got a particularly unique situation."
-- J. Danforth Quayle, Republican Vice-President
"One word sums up probably the responsibility of any vice president, and that one word is 'to be prepared'."
-- J. Danforth Quayle, Republican Vice-President
"We don't want to go back to tomorrow, we want to go forward."
-- J. Danforth Quayle, Republican Vice-President
"I have made good judgments in the Past. I have made good judgments in the Future."
-- J. Danforth Quayle, Republican Vice-President
"I love California; I practically grew up in Phoenix."
-- J. Danforth Quayle, Republican Vice-President
"A low voter turnout is an indication of fewer people going to the polls."
-- J. Danforth Quayle, Republican Vice-President
"We are ready for any unforeseen event that may or may not occur."
-- J. Danforth Quayle, Republican Vice-President
"I stand by all the misstatements that I've made."
-- J. Danforth Quayle, Republican Vice-President
"People that are really very weird can get into sensitive positions and have a tremendous impact on history."
-- J. Danforth Quayle, Republican Vice-President
"The citizen is influenced by principle in direct proportion to his distance from the political situation."
-- Milton Rakove
"I will not deny that there are men in the district better qualified than I to go to Congress, but gentlemen, these men are not in the race."
-- Sam Rayburn (D-TX)
"Son, always tell the truth. Then you'll never have to remember what you said the last time."
-- Speaker Sam Rayburn (D-TX)
"No one has a finer command of language than the person who keeps his mouth shut."
-- Speaker Sam Rayburn (D-TX)
"When you get too big a majority, you're immediately in trouble.'
-- Speaker Sam Rayburn (D-TX)
"When the concept of Social Security came before the House, every Republican but one voted against it. Had it not been for the Democrats, Social Security would never have passed, and our older people would not have this great support that our people provide. It has been my experience that Democrats generally vote to protect the people, while Republicans seem to try to protect the interests of big business."
-- Speaker Sam Rayburn (D-TX)
"They may be just as intelligent as you say. But I'd feel a helluva lot better if just one of them had ever run for sheriff."
-- Speaker Sam Rayburn (D-TX), to LBJ, on advisers to JFK
"I like power and I like to use it."
-- Speaker Sam Rayburn (D-TX)
"I will feel equality has arrived when we can elect to office women who are as incompetent as some of the men who are already there."
-- Maureen Reagan
"I must say that acting was good training for the political life that lay ahead of us."
-- Nancy Reagan
"A tree is a tree. How many more do you have to look at?"
-- Ronald Reagan, 1966 (opposing expansion of Redwood National Park
"Facts are stupid things."
-- Ronald Reagan (botching a quote by John Adams)
"The United Sates has much to offer the third world war."
-- Ronald Reagan (speaking on what the US has to offer the Third World. He repeated this error nine times in the same speech.)
"We're the party that wants to see an America in which people can still get rich."
- Ronald Reagan, 5/4/82
"You know, if I listened to him [Michael Dukakis] long enough, I would be convinced we're in an economic downturn and people are homeless and going without food and medical attention and that we've got to do something about the unemployed."
-- Ronald Reagan
"Politics is mostly pill-taking."
-- Rep. Thomas B. Reed (R-ME), 1895
"They could do worse, and they undoubtedly will."
-- Speaker Thomas Brackett Reed (R-ME), 1896, when asked whether the party might nominate him for president
"A lot of history is just dirty politics cleaned up for the consumption of children and other innocents."
-- Richard Reeves
"Canada Post doesn't really charge 32 cents for a stamp. It's 2 cents for postage and 30 cents for storage."
-- Gerald Regan, Canadian Cabinet Minister, 12/31/1983
"The President of the United States is the one man who can get the attention of the American people. If he says the nation is in trouble they will listen to him. If he addresses himself to their doubts and questions, they will hear him out. If he presents programs and legislation to do what he thinks is necessary for the safety of the Republic and explains and keeps on explaining why these are essential, he may very well prevail."
-- James Reston
"All politics are based on the indifference of the majority."
-- James Reston
"It is even more damaging for a minister to say foolish things than to do them."
-- Cardinal Jean-François-Paul-Gondi de Retz
"I've always said that in politics, your enemies can't hurt you, but your friends will kill you."
-- Governor Ann Richards (D-TX)
"Let me tell you, sisters, seeing dried egg on a plate in the morning is a lot dirtier than anything I've had to deal with in politics."
-- Governor Ann Richards (D-TX), 1990
"The killer bees have gone, like rats deserting the Titanic."
- Geraldo Rivera, discussing shakeups in Ken Starr's office
"An honest election, under democracy, is an act of innocence which does not take place more than once in the history of a given nation."
-- Jose Marie Gil Robles, speech in Madrid, 1933
"Partisanship is our great curse. We too readily assume that everything has two sides and that it is our duty to be on one or the other."
-- James Harvey Robinson
"I believe in the dignity of labor, whether with head or hand; that the world owes no man a living but that it owes every man an opportunity to make a living."
-- John D. Rockefeller
"Diplomacy is the art of saying 'nice doggy' until you can find a rock."
-- Will Rogers
"Take the diplomacy out of war and the thing would fall flat in a week."
-- Will Rogers
"Politics ain't worrying this country one-tenth as much as where to find a parking space."
-- Will Rogers
"A politician is not as narrow-minded as he forces himself to be."
-- Will Rogers
"Be a politician; no training necessary."
-- Will Rogers
"In Washington, one man could do what ten of them do. Things kinder run themselves, anyhow."
-- Will Rogers
"Politicians are dumb, but they can count to 50% plus one."
-- Will Rogers
"Politics has become so expensive that it takes a lot of money even to be defeated."
-- Will Rogers
"More men have been elected between Sundown and Sunup than ever were elected between Sunup and Sundown."
-- Will Rogers
"Many a politician wishes there was a law to burn old records."
-- Will Rogers
"Both political parties have their good times and bad times, only they have them at different times."
-- Will Rogers
"They are each good when they are out, and each bad when they are in."
-- Will Rogers
"The more you read and observe about this Politics thing, you got to admit that each party is worse than the other. The one that's out always looks the best."
-- Will Rogers
"We elect our Presidents, be they Republican or Democrat, then start daring 'em to make good."
-- Will Rogers
"In Europe public men do resign. But here it's a lost art. You have to impeach 'em."
-- Will Rogers
"There is good news from Washington today. Congress is deadlocked and can't act."
-- Will Rogers
"When they do nothing, they don't hurt anybody. When they do something is when they become dangerous."
-- Will Rogers
"This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer."
-- Will Rogers
"If they wasn't in congress, why, they would be doing something else against us that might be even worse.'
-- Will Rogers
"And the thing about my jokes is, they don't hurt anybody. You can take 'em or leave 'em - you can say they're funny or they're terrible or they're good, or whatever, but you can just pass 'em by. But with Congress, every time they make a joke, it's a law! And every time they make a law, it's a joke!"
-- Will Rogers, radio program, May 12th, 1935
"There is no more independence in politics than there is in jail."
-- Will Rogers
"If you ever injected truth into politics you have no politics."
-- Will Rogers
"The Democrats and Republicans are equally corrupt -- it's only in the amount where the Republicans excel."
-- Will Rogers
" … while the Republicans are smart enough to make money, the Democrats are smart enough to get in office every two or three times a century and take it away from 'em."
-- Will Rogers, radio talk, 1934
"There's no way in the world you're going to make a political party respectable unless you keep it out of office."
-- Will Rogers
"The 1928 Republican Convention opened with a prayer. If the Lord can see His way clear to bless the Republican Party the way it's been carrying on, then the rest of us ought to get it without even asking."
-- Will Rogers
"Anything important is never left to the vote of the people. We only get to vote on some man; we never get to vote on what he is to do."
-- Will Rogers
"Senators are a never-ending source of amusement, amazement, and discouragement."
-- Will Rogers
"Well, another senator rose and said {as they always do} 'Does the gentleman yield?' They always say that - least they call each other 'gentleman' in there. But the tone they put on the word, it would sound more appropriate if they came right out and said 'Would the coyote from Maine yield?' 'cause that's about the way it sounds. Well, then, the other senator says 'I yield' (for if he don't the other guy'll keep on talking anyhow). So the coyote from Maine says 'I yield to...the polecat from Oregon!'"
-- Will Rogers, radio program, May 12th, 1935
"I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts."
-- Will Rogers
"The difference between a Republican and a Democrat is the Democrat is a cannibal--they have to live off each other--while the Republicans, why, they live off the Democrats."
-- Will Rogers
"You got to be an optimist to be a Democrat, and you've got to be a humorist to stay one."
-- Will Rogers
"Democrats never agree on anything, that's why they're Democrats. If they agreed with each other, they would be Republicans."
-- Will Rogers
"I'm not a member of any organized political party, I'm a Democrat."
-- Will Rogers
"So I took an interest in politics, but I don't know whether I enjoyed it! It was a wife's duty to be interested in whatever interested her husband, whether it was politics, books, or a particular dish for dinner."
-- Eleanor Roosevelt
"Campaign behavior for wives: Always be on time. Do as little talking (Continued on page 18)
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