P. J. O'Rourke Quotes

I think the record shows that as Speaker, I have taken the lead in cleaning up politics.

Some statesmen go to Congress and some go to jail. It is the same thing, after all.

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.

This is a matter of public health. The public was sick and tired of DeLay and his corruption.

Under the circumstances, may I suggest another means of encouraging probity in elective office. I refer to term limitations, which can serve ends beyond that of saving congressional souls.

Everyone needs to understand that my work addresses existing problems, and one of the crucial problems in Russia today is corruption.

Nobody is immune to corruption. The difference is in how the society responds to corruption. Are the corrupt in jail as they are in Israel and most democracies. Or are they leaders in the government as in Palestine under the PLO.

Oversight now is defined as going after political appointees.

It's hard to make corruption a partisan issue because voters are cynical about everybody in politics.

History shows that more democracy is not a magic pill that will make institutionalized corruption will go away.

You cannot punish the people for the mistakes the politicians make.

We need clean candidates. Party A puts up a candidate and he is terribly corrupt. Party B puts up a candidate who is even more corrupt. There is no choice. So I have the Clean Candidate Campaign.

He [previous President Uribe] has criticized this government for unveiling a lot of corruption: he thinks it is an attack on his government. But I have said no, it is not an attack on his government, it is an attack on the corrupt people, and I will continue to do that.

If they won’t listen, we should limit the Politicians’ terms and send them packing..

We need to ban outside income for elected officials. Transparency alone is not enough; it doesn't solve the problem of creating outside dependencies.

I want to go to Washington and clean up Kay Hagan's mess.

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.

One or two of these scoundrel statesmen should be shot once a-year, just to keep the others on their good behavior.

Fundamental problem in American democracy is that we are allowing congressmen and senators to be bought and sold like sneakers.

The elected officials should be working for the voters who elected them. Money corrupts the process. Why would you be giving a candidate money unless you expect something in return?

I'm trying to avail myself of the various technologies to get the message that Washington needs to be cleaned up, that the system that's in place is not what's beneficial in the country.

If everyone in America can easily see who and what their lawmakers are requesting taxpayer money for, we can keep elected officials honest, end the days of political, special interest favors, and reduce wasteful spending.

What is true is that if we do not change the culture of Washington, D.C., the United States of America will cease.

I ask the vice president to stop dodging the issue with legalese, and acknowledge his continued ties with Halliburton to the American people.

I'm not going to reduce the choices of Canadians at the ballot box by backroom deals or secret arrangements. I think that's a cause for cynicism more than anything else.