Tom Fitton Quotes

My actions were intended solely to secure the repayment of funds, which I considered to be in the public interest, and I accept sole responsibility. I did not advise the prime minister of the means by which Sen. Duffy's expenses were repaid, either before or after the fact.

I think prime ministers, I actually think Cabinet ministers should be subject to intense scrutiny, I think that's in the public interest, even if some of the allegations made aren't right and so on, and they have to correct the record, it doesn't matter.

When the Vice President of the United States shoots somebody, the public has the right to know.

As a matter of general sound public policy, I am very certain that there is a requirement that where a public official is under inquiry or investigation, especially an elected official, and it appears that his scale of living or the total of his bank deposits far exceeds the public salary which he is known to receive, he, the elected public official, owes a positive public duty to the community to give a reasonable or credible explanation of the sources of the deposits, or the source which enables him to maintain a scale of living beyond the amount of his salary.

When the [political] clubhouse gets control of the seat of government, invariably the private interest outweighs the public interest, and corruption sets in.

Louisiana showed up at the top of a study of political corruption that calculated the number of convictions per capita. Georgia came out as worst on a corruption risk report from the State Integrity Investigation, which measured factors like accountability, transparency and ethics enforcement.

Even if Koch Industries had a financial interest in the Keystone XL pipeline, what possibly could be wrong with that? Perhaps more important, under what circumstances would such an interest be worthy of a congressional inquisition?

If you have faith in the public sector, as I do, you must be the harshest critic of corruption, waste and fraud in government.

I understand why foreign government contributions to the Clinton Foundation could raise ethical issues should Hillary run for president.

If everyone has to be a watchdog in order to make government work, then the foxes will also volunteer to serve.

WikiLeaks exposed the most dangerous lies of all, which are those that are told to us by elected governments.

I've been not only articulating the dissatisfaction with Albany, I've been acting on it. I've been very aggressive in bringing public integrity cases and public corruption cases and bringing cases against sitting legislators.

I mean those people who are interested in good government will certainly contribute in order to make certain there's some counter-balance to those whose interests in good government is less.

The time has come to tell the truth about the corruption of the government employee unions in this country.

There has been an awful lot of time and money spent looking at the president over the last four years The American people saw through those investigations. They voted for the president. And despite all of this time and attention, nothing has turned up because the president and the first lady did nothing wrong.

It is not to benefit CBS, not to benefit its reporters. On this one, the entire basis of it is this is a way to get more information, more important information to the public. And that's why so many states recognize this.

Instead of giving a politician the keys to the city, it might be better to change the locks.

Because of Watergate in part, I am kind of a magnet for calls and information and suggestions.

It is our duty to watch over the actions and activities of this government and to insist that, in words as well as in deeds, the interests of our constituency primarily and of the Nation ultimately are served.

Isn’t that a sweetheart deal. The Attorney General is appointed by the President; then investigates the President.

Government ought to be all outside and no inside [for] corruption thrives in secret places [and] it [is] a fair presumption that secrecy means impropriety.

Oversight now is defined as going after political appointees.

A government job is an occasion for public service, not special privilege. The undivided loyalty to the public interest required of the governorship makes it inappropriate to keep the profusion of gifts that arrive every day at this office.

We are the most scrutinized agency of the Federal government and we should be because of the enormous power we have and its potential for abuse

The function of a newspaper in a democracy is to stand as a sort of chronic opposition to the reigning quacks.