Robert H. McBride Quotes

The whole administrative, judicial, and legislative machinery obeys a single will, the caprice of General Porfirio Diaz, who during his long administration has shown that the principal motive that guides him is to maintain himself in power and at any cost.

Nixon officials foreshadowed both the historic distinction and seamy underside of the presidency.

Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely, and I found that out when I was Attorney General in Massachusetts.

The extravagant expenditure of public money is an evil not to be measured by the value of that money to the people who are taxed for it.

Look, we know we screwed up when we were in the majority. We fell in love with power. We spent way too much money - especially on earmarks. There was too much corruption when we ran this place. We were guilty. And that's why we lost.

Saddam spent 35 years stealing and wasting money, and all of these systems are very fragile and brittle, and you try to fix one thing and something else gets in trouble.

But constant experience shows us that every man invested with power is apt to abuse it, and to carry his authority as far as it will go.

Politics ruins the character.

My last comment was, though, that Congress has cooked the books.

It was accountability that Nixon feared.

The politicians in Washington are spending trillions of dollars of our money. When are Americans going to stand up and say enough is enough?

A President, acting like a king and claiming the powers of a king, is committing an impeachable offense…. Bush has claimed that to protect the nation, there is nothing he cannot do. Spy on Americans, torture, kill someone in their own home. He does not admit to any limitation on his power as long as he believes he is protecting the country.

Our allies and enemies, and Mr. Wilson himself, should all understand that Mr. Wilson has no authority to speak for the American people.

It is weakness rather than wickedness which renders men unfit to be trusted with unlimited power.

The shortest way to ruin a country is to give power to demogogues.

This career [politics] of plundering and blundering.

The root of most all problems we have today is the uncontrollable appetite of politicians in Washington to dish it out.

basically, the more power politicians have, the hornier they get

He’s a son-of-a-bitch, but he’s our son-of-a-bitch.

There's nothing like spending other peoples’ money

Power is always dangerous. It attracts the worst and corrupts the best..

when greed and fear are linked to power, you have a dangerous mix. We see that in political life. In part of the world, the mix of greed and fear means that those who get power become reluctant to give it back. One of the many things I like and admire in our democracies are the norms that make our leaders hand over power when voters tell them to

The corruption that hides in plain sight is the real threat to our democracy.

The biggest problem with the deficit is programs that are unconstitutional and wasteful.

Everywhere you look in Washington, you can find examples of financial mismanagement.