Richard V. Allen Quotes

William Cromwell had sent a $50,000 check to Taft’s Campaign. That would be the equivalent of more than $1 million in year 2000 money. He instructed the campaign manager to return the check. President Theodore Roosevelt thought Taft was being too principled and urged him to accept the money. See {640688} for Taft’s reply. Taft finally compromised between Roosevelt and his conscience, and took only $10,000.

This quotation illustrates a great problem with treaties in international law. Here an opponent of the Egyptian regime and one who disapproves of the regime before it, wants to repudiate the treaties that had been signed by previous Egyptian governments. So when there is a regime change, can a new regime repudiate earlier treaties? International law says no, but if a new government refuses to follow its obligations, then it is left to the other treaty partners to put pressure on them--breaking diplomatic relations, trade sanctions, even war. For example, President Thomas Jefferson made a treaty with the French Dictator Napoleon and bought the Louisiana Territory which includes a number of current American states. If a new French government abrogated the treaty of the dictator on the grounds that it did not represent the will of the French people and tried to take back their land, war could ensue. Nations very rarely repudiate treaties for if they did, who would sign any new ones?

When accused of being a baby killer for her views on abortion:

4 weeks later Lance resigned as Budget Director over ethical lapses.

A foreign company presented him with a red Ferrari:

The House Majority Leader Tom Delay, with a history of ethics violations, got caught in some very serious ones and convinced the House majority leadership to change the rules of the Ethics Committee to prevent the minority from initiating any investigations or inquiries. The Ethics Committee was the only House committee that has an equal number of majority and minority members and before this change, either side would initiate an inquiry.

He was referring to his practice of distributing shares of stock to other congressmen on behalf of Credit Mobilier and Union Pacific. Ames was censured by the Congress in 1872, for "seeking to procure congressional attention to the affairs of a corporation in which he was interested.” The cartoon to the left is from the period showing all the congressmen getting their piece of the Mobilier Credit cake.

Presidential assistant Sherman Adams was rumored to have accepted gifts for favors. Adams resigned in disgrace a few months later.