Robin McKinley Quotes

In 1875 Benjamin Disraeli had an opportunity to purchase the Suez Canal for Great Britain from the Khedive of Egypt who was in great need of cash. However, Disraeli had to act very fast and there was no way to quickly move an appropriation of the then very large sum of 4 million pounds through Parliament. So he sent Corry to ask Lionel Rothchild, the British financier, for a loan until the government might raise the money. Rothchild asked, what would be the security for such a large loan. Rothchild immediately gave the loan.

Many people think that running a corporation is good training and demonstrates the ability to run the country. However, business leaders who have come into government, almost all like Breton, think the two are very different.

Explaining why the President didn't have more press conferences:

This is an interesting variation of the FDR quotation regarding the President and Congress.

Alberto Gonzalez, White House Counsel and later Attorney General who was forced to resign and David S. Addington, Counsel to the Vice President, had come up with a novel view of the powers of the presidency. They argued that since the President is the Commander in Chief, in a war situation or intelligence gathering thereto, has the Constitutional responsibility for that function, he need not obey any laws of Congress as in the conduct of the war Congress would be impinging on the Constitutional separation of powers which itself was prohibited by the Constitution. The argument did not find any significant legal support but for a while the George W. Bush White House behaved as if this were the law, despite the fact that even in the American Revolution and the War of 1812 Congress passed laws regulating the conduct of the armed forces as is provided for in other parts of the Constitution. Yet even Goldsmith would allow the President some powers that many think are unconstitutional and/or belong to Congress. See {32436}.