Lord Salisbury Quotes

When you buy a Presidential candidate, you buy his party and you buy 20,000 appointees you never heard of.

'Favoritism' is always a factor, and pressure always build for the appointment of friends of influential supporters of the President, or for the nominees of powerful Member of Congress from the incoming President's party.

There can be no complete and permanent reform of the civil service until public opinion emancipates congressmen from all control and influence over government patronage ... No proper legislation is to be expected as long as members of Congress are engaged in procuring offices for their constituents

A President cannot call men from all parts of the country during the time between his nomination and his election, seek their advice, their counsel, their service, their cooperation in his personal behalf and in behalf of the party ... and also tell them in the same breath, to see the Secretary of War, the Attorney General and the Postmaster General about a presidential nomination.

Politics means competition, especially in senior positions. If you don't know that, you're not especially suited to politics.

Real politics are the possession and distribution of power.

Politics is its own world. It is a court and if the king's eye lights on you, you are a powerful figure. If the king's eye wanders elsewhere, you are out, whatever your title.

Obama considers himself above deal-making and back-slapping, political necessities he often delegates to Vice President Joe Biden and other lesser sorts.

In 44 states, the [parole] board is wholly appointed by the governor, and the well-paid positions can become gifts for former aides and political allies. While some state laws require basic qualifications, these statutes are often vaguely worded, with language that is easily sidestepped. Many states have no minimum requirements at all.

I would sooner attack either of those gentlemen in the open street than consent to oppose any local appointment they might desire to make in their respective states.

The greatest beggar and the most troublesome of all the office seekers during my Administration was General Harrison.

All administrations benefit from the in and outers.

During [President Martin Van Buren's] stay in New York he has visited most of the public places in the constant custody of a set of men who are not (unless he has greatly changed) the sort of folks he would have chosen for his associates; but party politics, like poverty, bring men "acquainted with strange bedfellows.

It is a handicap to any man to succeed a member of his own party as President. He has little patronage with which to reward his personal supporters.

Lincoln left the bulk of the nominations for presidential as well as for subordinate offices to his political friends and advisors. The military forces as well as the civilian establishment were exploited freely, and political generals were notoriously numerous. With more offices at his disposal than any president up to that time, … Lincoln appears to have used — or permitted the use of — the appointing power at his command as deliberately as they could have been used for practical, and usually partisan, political purposes.

I am now in a contest on the question of the right of Senators to dictate or control all nominations. Mr. [Roscoe] Conkling insists that no officer shall be appointed in New York without his [Conkling's] consent, obtained previously to the nomination.

When I came into power, I found that the party managers had taken it all to themselves. I could not name my own Cabinet. They had sold out every place to pay the election expenses.

Lord Melbourne entirely agrees with your Majesty about appointments. He knows, as your Majesty does from experience, that with all the claims which there are to satisfy, with all the prejudices which are to be encountered, and with all the interests which require to be reconciled, it is impossible to select the best men, or even always those properly qualified.

Business must learn the lesson. Political power is necessary, that such political power must be assiduously cultivated; and that when necessary, it must be used aggressively and with determination.

No particular prior experience—not business or academia, or think tanks, or law—suggests that an individual will master the bureaucratic politics of Washington DC.

Politics is a game of friends.

I wasn't a party apparatchik. I think too many of today's people in both parties come forward, university, 'What party will I join? Oh, yes, I know somebody here. I might get a job working for this member or for that shadow minister or minister.'

It's very interesting how Washington works. It's not about speeches. It's about relationships.

Washington is a very complicated city. You have to work the personal relationships. They are politicians, they are congressmen, they are senators, but they are human beings. And for them to get to know you on a personal level really, really makes the difference.

I am not tied to the broken political machine, and I did not aspire to climb the ranks of the Cook County Democratic Party to be the party boss.