James G. Abourezk Quotes

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

When it comes to listening to my constituents or to the governor's staff, who are more interested in their pet projects and their government cars, I'll vote for my constituents every time.

It's very dangerous ... to confuse the confuse the identity and fortune of the President with the success and fortune of the nation.

As I have said before, that Federal Penal Code could never have been enacted into law if we had had a responsible press who was willing to tell the American people the truth about what it actually provides. Nor would we have had a bill had it not been for the United States Supreme Court.

No minister ever stood, or could stand, against public opinion.

The court makes an amazing amount of decisions that ought to be made by the people.

I haven't heard Obama ask us for our consent when he's trying to ram Obamacare down our throats.

I don't like politicians, and I don't like politics. I definitely don't want to be associated with any of them.

In their hours of timidity the Congress becomes subservient to the importunities of organized minorities that the President comes more and more to stand as the champion of the rights of the whole country.

It is a great impropriety for a President to use the power of his office to induce men in Congress to vote for or vote against a bill that will affect the welfare of ninety millions of people.

The people never have and never will be able to understand how the will of a majority of the House of Representatives can be set aside by the judgment of a few men on a powerful committee.

Of course the law's up for grabs. That's why you win elections and appoint judges.

... a distrust of the popular will as a safe regulator of political power.

Democracy is much too important to be left to public opinion.

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.

In the end, the claim of a single Senator to control all nominations in his State will be found so preposterous that it will fall of its own weight.

The political event of last week is the opposition of [Roscoe] Conkling to the New York appointments. This is a test case. The Senators generally prefer to confirm Merritt and Graham. But many, perhaps a majority, will not oppose Conkling on the question. Senatorial courtesy, the Senatorial prerogative, and the fear of Conkling's vengeance in the future, control them.

You never know what’s going to happen at a confirmation hearing.

A law is simply a reflection of the momentary perception of self-interest by a majority of a legislative body.

Who does not know that the appointment to the Presidential chair is impossible without intrigue. By such means the Assembly is mastered, commissions selected, and reports concluded…. The Assembly is forced into discussing matters in such a way that the fate of the People is always decided by recommended opinion of the few. Have the People elected their representatives merely to succumb to the influence of these few.

The debate is ended. Fifty percent plus one vote is all we need to govern this country.

Our national political campaigns never stop. We seem convinced that majorities exist to impose their will with few concessions and that minorities exist to prevent the party in power from doing anything important. That's not how we were meant to govern.

Why should the PM be placed on such a high pedestal? That an ordinary citizen should not even have the guts to write a letter to the PM?

Holding Congressional hearings is the purview of the majority, and during the first years of the Obama administration, Democrats could not be bothered.

It's the public which decides its Chief Minister. We live in a democracy.