Thomas Korologos Quotes

If we were left solely to the wordy wit of legislators in Congress for our guidance, uncorrected by the seasonal experience and the effectual complaints of the people, America would not long retain her rank among the nations.

Only we, the public, can force our representatives to reverse their abdication of the war powers that the Constitution gives exclusively to the Congress.

It is against the enterprising ambition of this department [the legislature] that the people ought to indulge all their jealousy and exhaust all their precautions.

There is hardly a member of Congress who can make up his mind to go home without having dispatched at least one speech to his constituents; nor who will endure any interruption until he has introduced into his harangue whatever useful suggestions may be made touching the four-and-twenty States of which the Union is composed, and especially the district which he represents.

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

From an institution standpoint, I want the American people to understand that the Senate can function, even on the most serious things.

The rule of law should be upheld by all political parties. They should neither advise others to break the law, nor encourage others to do so even when they strongly disagree with the legislation put forward by the government of the day.

Government is not a bottom line enterprise. You can get yourself elected ... but you can't fire the legislature if they won't do what you want.

The people in Congress have no interest in preserving the Constitution because they are interested in power.

Congressmen take an independent oath to protect and defend the Constitution. They work with the President; they do not work for the President.

The respect of the American people for the Congress has been increased. They can see the Congress as a vigilant Congress.

A Senator is not God or a doctor.

[The impeachment power] is the heaviest piece of artillery in the congressional arsenal, but because it is so heavy it is unfit for ordinary use.

You can't possibly know everything that's in those bills ... you have to trust the leadership.

It is not the Congress's job to rubber stamp bad decisions [of the President.]

No branch of government should ever be able to combine the power of the sword with the power of the purse.

No check is necessary on a Legislature composed as the national Legislature would be, with two branches—an upper and a lower House.

The Senate is not a rubber stamp!

THE representatives of the good people of this commonwealth in general assembly convened, having maturely considered the answers of sundry states in the Union, to their resolutions passed at the last session, respecting certain unconstitutional laws of Congress, commonly called the alien and sedition laws, would be faithless indeed to themselves, and to those they represent, were they silently to acquiesce….

Please veto this bill. Mr. President, the Congress is out of control and needs adult supervision.

As the House is designed to provide a reflection of the mood of the moment, the Senate is meant to reflect the continuity of the past—to preserve the delicate balance of justice between the majority’s whims and the minority’s rights.

I soon found that the Senate had but one fixed rule … which was to the effect that the Senate would do anything it wanted to do whenever it wanted to do it.

What Congress and the popular sentiment approve is rarely defeated by reason of constitutional objections.

You can’t start a conversation about public policy by saying it is complex.

No, I look at the senators and pray for the country!