Henry Clay Quotes
The Senate is no longer a place for any decent man. I am truly sick of Congress.
The Senator was particularly discouraged when a majority voted to change the Senate record of four years earlier and expunge a censure resolution against President Andrew Jackson:
Henry Clay, 1777-1852, U.S. Congressman and Senator (National Republican & Whig, KY), Speaker of the House, U.S. Secretary of State, Unsuccessful presidential candidate, Remark to Senator Thomas Hart Benton, January 1837
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
We live in a time where people are losing confidence in the ability of Government to solve problems.
The public confidence in government had hit an historical low during the administration of George W. Bush during which his administration was riddled with ideologues who had little competence and less inclination to solve problems. However even in those cases where the Bush administration wanted to succeed, they usually failed producing such fiascos as Hurricane Katrina, the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq, shipping nuclear weapons components my mistake to Taiwan, illegal disclosure of the identity of CIA covert agents, and others.
He was not very good at it. Taft was an excellent Supreme Court Justice, and had good management skills, but could never get the hang of relating to people—the electorate or the Congress. He is the only major party presidential candidate to come in 3rd, and he was the incumbent. Administratively, he had not been a bad President but his poor people skills required him to pander to the right wing base of his own party and this angered his former mentor Theodore Roosevelt who ran against Taft in the Republican primary. Taft moved to the right still further and so angered TR that he ran against Taft as an independent in the general election. Woodrow Wilson won, but Roosevelt came in second and beat Taft handily.
The objective of a large proportion of the Congress then was not to improve the nation or even pass legislation, but to preserve their ideology and attack and weaken the other party. Compromise for example is probably the best legislative practice, but that Congress had a substantial number of Tea Party and other ultra conservatives who believed that any compromise at all was an immoral abandonment of principle.
Henry Clay Sr. was an American attorney and statesman who represented Kentucky in both the Senate and House. He was the seventh House Speaker and the ninth Secretary of State. He received electoral votes for president in the 1824, 1832, and 1844 presidential elections. He also helped found both the National Republican Party and the Whig Party. For his role in defusing sectional crises, he earned the appellation of the "Great Compromiser" and was part of the "Great Triumvirate".
