Nancy Reagan Quotes

By the nature of his office, a President is separated from his natural constituency and from the art of his profession, politics. The office restricts his movements, his access to events and reality.

There is no job description for the first lady and she's only there because her husband got elected president.

I've never covered the president in any way other than that he is ultimately responsible.

I am well aware of what three past presidents have said, but that will not be worth five cents if the people and the Congress do not support their president now.”

When I cannot get the President to read my reports, then its time to go.

No White House staff person wants to conflict with the First Lady who goes home and has the ear of the President all night.

The sign of a failing President is his complaining about the limitations of the office

Making the bureaucracy accountable to the President in any comprehensive and enduring way is impossible. Making it alert to his preferences is possible in those cases where Presidents put loyal and competent subordinates in charge of making decisions.

I took an oath to protect the Constitution, and protecting the Constitution means not letting the president bypass the separation of powers.

One of the worries about a presidency is that everybody tells you yes. Nobody helps you figure out where your blind spots are.

Very important, the President must be seen not as a figurehead but as somebody the people can look to for support for some of the issues, national problems and so on.

I'm seeing too much power being concentrated in the executive branch, and so our system of government is really in jeopardy, and more importantly, the overwhelming issue that we've had for a long time is money in politics. I see that problem getting worse.

The American presidency combines elements of the efficient and the dignified. The president presides over governance - not making legislation but proposing it, cajoling the co-equal federal legislature and then signing and executing the laws.

Historically, the most favorably viewed figure in any administration is the first lady, regardless of her husband's popularity. That is largely because first ladies avoid the political fray and are ritualistically presented as a warm, human presence in the White House.

Historically, the Justice Department has been Congress' ally in fighting wrongdoing in government, but under this Justice Department and Eric Holder, rather than being the people's attorney, Eric Holder sees himself as the president's attorney and he'll do anything to defend the president.

I've put forth measures that would actually eliminate some of the executive branch power. You know, philosophically, that's where I am.

Ultimately, what we want to do is see the president follow the laws.

While the seeming independence of the federal judiciary has played a vital part in making its actions virtual Holy Writ for the bulk of the people, it is also and ever true that the judiciary is part and parcel of the government apparatus and appointed by the executive and legislative branches.

The president, it seems to me, stands out as the one person in our system who is in a unique position where the checks on any lack of integrity there are more important than for anyone else in the system of government.

We often get impeachment inquiries or moves for impeachment inquiries on one president or another, and it doesn't go anywhere.

Every time a president invokes executive privilege, there are three relevant audiences he has to think about: the courts, Congress, and the public.

I believe the attorney general or the deputy attorney general has an obligation to follow the law and the Constitution and to give their independent legal advice to the President.

To say that I'm going to veto something that I haven't read is just - or sign something that I haven't read - I don't think is good policy for any chief executive.

I told the president 'no' to special treatment for Congress when he tried to exempt them from Obamacare.

As members of the executive, we are accountable to Parliament.