Erin O'Toole Quotes

Senator Gillibrand is good at saying things that sound nice but have little substance. I don't think we elect our public officials to avoid taking a stand or a difficult position on anything.

You know there's nothing a Hill Democrat would rather do than criticize another Democrat. It is their favorite activity. Then they can read about how honorable they are in an Op-Ed piece, how bipartisan.

I have criticisms of Ronald Reagan, but he lives in another universe from the kind of political theater that is represented by people, like Sarah Palin, who aren't really public servants.

Promises to get beyond partisanship are the most perfunctory sort of campaign rhetoric, almost as empty as the partisanship itself.

On Capitol Hill we like to make tough speeches. We don’t like to make tough choices.

Liberals are good at catchphrases, but there's no substance behind them.

President George] Bush talked to us like we were a bunch of morons and we ate it up. Can you imagine, the Pledge of Allegiance, read my lips-can you imagine such crap in this day and age?

The politician has to try to appeal to everybody. So, consequently, he cannot tell the truth, because if he tells the truth over there, then these people over here will be offended.

Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river.

He was born to be a senator. He never said anything important, and he always said it sonorously.

Mr. Speaker, having received unanimous consent to extend my remarks in the RECORD, I would like to indicate that I am not really speaking these words. Try as I might, I could not get the floor to deliver my plea on behalf of the coal miners.... I do not want to kid anybody into thinking that I am now on my feet delivering a stirring oration. As a matter of fact, I am back in my office typing this out on my own hot little typewriter. Such is the pretense of the House that it would have been just as easy to quietly include these remarks in the RECORD, issue a brave press release, and convince thousands of cheering constituents that I was in there every step of the way, influencing the course of history in the heat of debate.

We’re not very good at policy making any more, but we are good at symbolism. So we do a lot of symbols.

Politicians are always realistically maneuvering for the next election. They are obsolete as fundamental problem-solvers.

A typical vice of American politics — the avoidance of saying anything real on real issues, and the announcement of radical policies with much sound and fury, and at the same time with a cautious accompaniment of weasel phrases each of which sucks the meat out of the preceding statement.

Highly popular and unpopular Presidents do not engage in policy pandering.

It's quite unbelievable that Charlie Crist is getting away with this reinvention of himself - this rewriting of history for blatantly political purposes. Other than his gender, the guy has flip-flopped on everything, and I don't put that past him either.

I do object to those who jump from political hackery to flackery and expect respect.

My view of Trump is that, while he has done some extremely noxious things, in general his worst feature, his most authoritarian feature, really is his public presentation.

When I called Clinton a Wall Street puppet, they called me a right-wing extremist. When I said the same about George W. Bush, they called me an anti-war communist. Now that I'm against Obama for the same reasons, mainline conservatives embrace me. When I attack the next right-wing 'savior,' they're gonna call me a communist again.

I think it's funny that nobody wants to be liked by Washington. All the politicians go, 'I don't like Washington. They don't like me.' I always find it funny that people are trying to distance themselves from Washington as much as they can, even though they're all in Washington.

I find the whole Blairish idea more and more repugnant every day. 'New Labour': the term itself is so trashy. Kind of ersatz.

The political classes are despised when they deal in sound bites, embrace tokenistic campaigns and feather their own nests while trying to please all of the people all of the time.

I long ago tired of politicians who never say anything, adhere to their talking points, and avoid all controversy.

When you see celebrities say, 'I hope the economy bottoms out to get rid of Trump,' I think that helps Trump.

Justin Trudeau tries to say that Canada is back. I say the Liberals are back - back to ignoring the rules and abusing the privileges of power.