John Lehman Quotes
No one with a weak heart or delicate digestion should seek the job [Secretary of the Navy]
John F. Lehman, Secretary of the Navy, Command of the Seas, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1989
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Note that early constitutional experts assumed that one of the President’s roles was to be non partisan and control partisanship. Note the phrase ‘prevent the artifices of party’. The early founders were very wary of political parties of ‘factions’ as Madison called them. However, most were extremely partisan although in the Presidency partisanship was toned down by George Washington but after him, partisan ship became the norm.
The George W. Bush administration, violated the Civil Service Law and the traditions of the Justice Department by making hiring and assignment decisions on the basis of political ideology and participation. Making the situation worse, the political people who were put in senior positions of authority were often not very well qualified and far less so than the people they ended up supervising and outranking. The inspector general of the Justice Department, after being stonewalled, finally uncovered the mess and Monica Goodling, one of the worst offenders, was barred from ever working for the Justice Department again.
Henry, who most people remember for his 5 wives, was actually a very learned man, who wrote prose, poetry and music. He actually brought non-English learned men to his court if they had intellectual or cultural views. In addition, he was an excellent athlete and brought active sports to England.
Cleopatra was not just a woman ruling between male dynasties, but a brilliant and able politician, tactician, and military leader. She was descended from Alexander the Great’s Macedonian General Ptolomy who inherited Egypt upon Alexander’s death. By all accounts she was an amazing leader irrespective of gender. But she also used her sexuality very powerfully. Her language skill was remarkable; she was actually the first of the line of Ptolemy rulers of Egypt who actually spoke and read Egyptian. Of course she was also fluent in Greek and Latin as well as all the “Barbarian” languages.
Not all kings were uncaring aristocrats and a few were excellent, compassionate, rulers. Most were not however.
Harding was certainly ordinary, but he was not, in the opinion of most historians, a very good president.
Explaining the skills needed to work as a congressional staffer:
He was executed for rebellion at age 29. However, a number of his followers went on to leadership positions in the reforms that followed.
1st Marquees of Halifax. This is a very important quotation because it still has much validity today. The “Prince” is the Monarch, King or Official Heading the State. Savile points out that if the Price does not take the time or make the effort to understand an issue and its complexity, he then must trust his advisors and their opinions rather than have any intelligent and knowledgeable views of his own. In modern times the advice applies to elected officials, executive and legislative. If they do not take time and make the effort to understand a complex issue, they cannot use their own judgment but must accept the judgment of staff, friends, colleagues, party leaders, lobbyists or members of committees who they hope are not also ignorant. In modern legislatures, there are so many different issues in so many areas, that it is very difficult to have the time to make the effort to study all the issues. This problem is compounded with politicians as they tend to spend large amounts of their time fundraising for their next election and simply do not have enough time to study issues. In the Congress for example, most members vote on bills that they have not even read and they end up trusting someone else’s judgment.
While business generally pays much more than Federal service, there are many brilliant people in the government who are not primarily motivated by making the most possible money. NIST for example had two Nobel Prize winners, and several others have served in the National Institutes of Health. Some of the best economists have worked for the government, and the military is full of outstanding men and women of intellect. But generally, with its higher salaries, the private sector has the recruiting advantage though not to the degree Regan implied.
John Francis Lehman Jr. is an American private equity investor and writer who served as Secretary of the Navy (1981–1987) in the Ronald Reagan administration where he promoted the creation of a 600-ship Navy. From 2003 to 2004 he was a member of the 9/11 Commission.
