William Smyth Quotes

Being right too early is one of the most devastating things in politics

As a policymaker, as a public servant, I come to Washington, D.C., and I make difficult decisions and I make difficult decisions every day. And sometimes those decisions upset people.

In politics, being ridiculous is more damaging than being extreme.

Anyone who gets too close to President Bush will get burned.

Politicians can forgive almost anything in the way of abuse; they can forgive subversion, revolution, being contradicted, exposed as liars, even ridiculed, but they can never forgive being ignored.

It is not very often given to a politician to turn out to be right.

The proper memory for a politician is one that knows what to remember and what to forget.

There is something wrong with the way in which we make our decisions. The Government listen too much to the pollsters and the party managers. The trouble is that they are not even very good at politics, and they are entering too much into policy decisions. As a result, there is too much short-termism, too much reacting to events, and not enough shaping of events. We give the impression of being in office but not in power. Far too many important decisions are made for 36 hours' publicity.

At a time when politics has become an almost minute-by-minute spectacle, political thinkers who try to discern a sweeping interpretive pattern in current events or to predict where those events may be heading are likely to find their work evaluated in terms dismayingly like those applied to candidates and strategists. One wrong guess, or an abrupt change in the political weather, can make even an illuminating political book seem as irrelevant as a bungled campaign.

Every day they [politicians] must weigh in on things of which they have little or no reliable knowledge or about which they just don't care.

You can't use tact with a Congressman! A Congressman is a hog! You must take a stick and hit him on the snout!

People have perceived dangers and real dangers, but to politicians, it's all the same.

Any person would like a line item veto if the chief executive at that time agrees with their particular views.

Issues are a problem for politicians most of the time; the reason is that somebody won't like what you say when you start talking issues.

A statesman is judged by results. If his policy fails he goes. It may be unfair, but there is a kind of rough justice about it.

Injecting new ideas into public debate is the supreme function of the newspaper columnist. Politicians and civil servants absolutely will not take the risk.

No one who's a politician wants to be associated with anything that is unpopular.

Politicians worry about downside political risks. Generally speaking, they are risk minimizers.

The press would rather cover a chanting demonstrator than cover the Speaker of the House.

A voting record is your work product. It tells people where you stand on issues, and for better or worse it implies you're there doing what you're elected to do. It's the only litmus test available.

I have never found, in a long experience in politics, that criticism is ever inhibited by ignorance.

My column showed you into office and my column can show you out again

The Presidency, even to the most experienced politicians, is no bed of roses; and Gen. Taylor like others, found thorns within it. No human being can fill that station and escape censure.

In any operation as large as that of the federal government there are always going to be anomalies, mistakes and peccadilloes. The trick is to incite so much public (or at least media) outrage about them that the government has eventually to cut its losses rather than risk continued political damage.

It would be foolish, in forming our expectations, to attach great weight to matters which are very uncertain.