John Chafee Quotes

Politics in Washington is a contact sport. But it shouldn't be a personal animosity sport.

Well, I don't know too many governors who are flaming ideologues.

Our politics are half noble and half mud wrestling.

I've decided to cut out the part of the speech where I say anything nice about Democrats.

The Republicans are coming - make nice.

Well it's really hard to satisfy the right wing. I can tell you that.

Politicians always criticize each other in different ways.

The political system loves the extremes, it doesn't so much show a lot love for the moderates.

I'm going to work with Republicans when they do things I agree with and I'm going to fight Republicans when they're doing things that I think are damaging.

Bipartisanship is like marriage. It takes two to make it work. It only takes one to make it a failure. The President has been playing politics with foreign policy.

I was brought up in a home where the Secretary of State was not the subject of partisan debate.

A politician is a person with whose politics you don't agree; if you agree with him, he is a statesman.

At home you always have to be a politician. When you're abroad you almost feel yourself a statesman.

If we can’t agree on the facts, how can we agree on the solutions?

I wasn't looking for a hobby. If I were looking for a hobby, it wouldn't be the United States Senate. That's one of the toughest jobs I'd probably ever do. I just felt there wasn't enough compromise going on: People were too far to the left, too far to the right, with no one trying to build a compromise.

People love to talk about the old bipartisanship. But it wasn't really bipartisanship. Yeah, they had a different label. But they're replaced now by people with basically the same views.

You know, 'Professor Obama' has been a label applied to him by Republicans and Democrats alike. He's a very smart guy. But I think he'd be, you know, better served not to spend so much time trying to impress us with his particular position on an issue and understand that there are things upon which we simply have a disagreement.

As the polarization in D.C. spreads, the people willing to come to the middle find less and less acceptance.

You know how it is: when you politicize things, it is not the best ingredient to get things done.

Politics and more politics - that's how you work towards the building of agreements.

There are many men of principle in both parties in America, but there is no party of principle.

We need a government, not politics. Because there's too much politics. Of course there should be debate. But there seems to be so much pettiness and not enough good faith. It is civilized to agree to disagree, and this idea is slowly disintegrating. The great statesmen of the past knew this, and I think it helps drive civilization.

Centrism is bogus.

What the 1990s taught the Clinton veterans was that you could 'triangulate' with a GOP-controlled Congress.

Campaigns often make standing on principle the highest of virtues - and listening to your opponents a sure sign of weakness. It's the virtual opposite of what it takes to succeed in office. Squaring the circle takes a powerful combination of skills. But presidents who can campaign and compromise are generally the most successful.