Millicent Fenwick Quotes

Ethics in government has always been important to me.

When there is a lack of honor in government, the morals of the whole people are poisoned.

The basis of effective government is public confidence, and that confidence is endangered when ethical standards falter or appear to falter.

We must maintain the integrity of the White House, and that integrity must be real, not transparent. There can be no whitewash at the White House.

Let me just say this, and I want to say this to the televison audience: I made my mistakes, but in all of my years of public life, I have never profited, never profited from public service

Dishonesty in government is the business of every citizen. It is not enough to do your own job. There's no particular virtue in that. Democracy isn't a gift. It's a responsibility.

I don't think people maybe think that the government does tell them the truth. I think they expect politicians who are going to tell them one thing and then when they get in office do something else.

There can be no faith in government if our highest offices are excused from scrutiny - they should be setting the example of transparency.

You have to trust your government. Don't let every scar, every wart, every hiccup condemn the whole body.

Today we must make a pact with each other to end this reckless conduct with the people's government.

I don't claim any moral or ethical high ground, but I also have chosen not to run for public office. Shouldn't there be a higher standard of conduct for public officials?

Politicians must set their aims for the high ground and according to our various leanings, Democratic, Republican, Independent, we will follow. Politicians must be told if they continue to sink into the mud of obscenity, they will proceed alone.

I have kept a steady focus on restoring public faith in our state government since taking office July 1. Now it is time to make even bigger and bolder gains through legislative action.

Montanans elected me to the Senate to do away with shady backroom deals and to make government work better.

This is the way I think about politics: We want two diametrically opposed things from a politician. On one hand we want them to be bastions of moral integrity, perfect people, saints. And on the other hand, we want them to be effective leaders.

I don't think that Washington is a fundamentally bad or corrupt place.

If a large city can, after intense intellectual efforts, choose for its mayor a man who merely will not steal from it, we consider it a triumph of the suffrage.

I don’t know why we expect perfection from our elected leaders.

Most people who serve in Congress just want to do the right thing.

The only way to have clean politics is to pay party district and city leaders as business executives.

Corruption is not the sole test of your worthiness to form the government.

Transparency and accountability must be restored in politics.

I have never used my office for anything other than the purpose in which I hold it - to represent the people who sent me to Washington.

Bringing accountability to Washington has been an important part of my time in office and an important part of my campaign.

There's going to be a new code on Parliament Hill: bend the rules, you will be punished; break the law, you will be charged; abuse the public trust, you will go to prison.