Hillary Clinton Quotes

You've got to have a theme if you're going to get Congress to do something difficult.

Someone doesn't think immediately, "I want to be a lobbyist."

I think there's a lot to learn from Rockefeller on how to pass legislation.

What Congress does is respond to pressures that are upon it.

You cannot rely on House or Senate staff to pass a piece of legislation for you, but if you have antagonized staff, they can block you.

The secret to legislative success in Virginia is courtesy, patience, and persistence; you usually get what you want. You won’t get it if you scream about it, and you won’t get it if you’re not willing to wait a long time.

The employment had no reference whatever to anything pending in Congress.

It isn't like dealing with a state legislature.

The lobbyists are a kind of permanent other government.

Lobbyists can pay consultants to do studies that say anything.

Presidents are evaluated not by what they did by the stroke of their own pen; it's what they persuade Congress to do.

I really focus on making sure that we pass good policy. I don't mind throwing my elbows around to get it done.

Lobbyists really are experts in their fields and know what they are talking about. That's why the government always listens to them as they tell the government what it's doing wrong and what it should be doing instead.

The most important external environment is the government of India. You have to sell your ideas to the government. Selling the idea is the most important thing, and for that I'll meet anybody in the government. I am willing to salaam anyone. One thing you won't find in me and that is an ego.

If you can’t move the public, you can’t move the Congress.

You can't use tact with a Congressman! A Congressman is a hog! You must take a stick and hit him on the snout!

The Secretary of State has always stood as much alone as the historian. Required to look far ahead and around him, he measures forces unknown to party managers, and has found Congress more or less hostile since Congress first sat.

[Referring to lobbying:] You get a job in Congress or on a presidential campaign, step up to the administration, and finally go on to easy money.

Getting members of Congress to do things they don’t want to do is a crucial part of being President.

Politics is about power, and it is about group power.

I've seen senators, whose character and intelligence I know reasonably well, vote a certain way just because staff tells them to.

Members of Congress often have to have testimony to hang their hat on if they wish to do something for you or do something for the country.

Nearly all legislation is the result of compromise.

Policy and politics are always mixed up.

It is in the committee that the dirty work is done ... away from the many-eyed scrutiny of the rest of Congress and the public ... special interest legislation usually originates in the committee room.