Harold L. Ickes Quotes

An attorney general has to stand up [to the President], and sometimes he will be replaced.

We are the only institution in our society that can question a president on a regular basis and make him accountable. Otherwise, he could be king.

It is up to Congress to see to it that its powers do not slip through its fingers

At present the direction of our affairs, foreign and domestic, has again come to be almost wholly in the hands of the Senate, because there are in the Senate a few courageous men who have dared to take control from the Executive.

Traditionally, in America, we have accountability as kind of a key feature of each branch of government in some way. So, you know, you obviously have to run for office. Or if you're a judge, you've got to be nominated by political officials and so on.

There can only be one government, and the president has certain roles and duties, which are to hold the second key on money and on people but not to go and check the government or tell the government what it is supposed to do.

Forget about war or disease or poverty. The apocalypse is when America's elected president is no longer supervised by the unelected ruling establishment.

I think that less presidential interference the better.

On form of government, there should be checks and balances, and PM should be responsible to Parliament.

Congressmen take an independent oath to protect and defend the Constitution. They work with the President; they do not work for the President.

The most important benefit that I can confer on the country by my Presidency is to insist upon the entire independence of the executive and legislative branches of government

The framers of the Constitution did not entrust this House with the power to impeach the President of the United States in order to establish this body as a court of personal morality.

The federal courts do not sit as an ombudsman, refereeing the disputes between the other two branches.

The powers that are surrendered [by Congress] to one President remain to be used by others.

The Congress is getting too powerful.

One party should not have the power to impeach the President of the other party.

One advantage to covering the Congress rather than the White House is that no one is controlling the agenda.

A committee of the Senate ought to confer with a committee of the President through a head of a department and not with the Chief Magistrate, for in the latter case a committee of that House is equal to the President.

The power to make war is vested in Congress and not in the President. Congress has no constitutional authority to grant such authority to the president.

Our President is not a King, nor our senate a House of Lords.

The separation of powers of the Constitution almost encourages leaks.

Most Americans look upon the President as superior to the Congress and the Supreme Court, about whose powers and functions they know very little;

For one branch of government to control each of the other two is not a good thing.

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

I did not come to Congress to impeach the President. But I took an oath to protect our country and defend the Constitution.