Cabinet Quotes
When Disraeli first entered politics and tried to run for Parliament the notion that he would ever become Prime Minister was very unrealistic to everyone except Disraeli. In addition to no political experience at the time, he came from a Jewish background at a time when anti-Semitism was very common and acceptable to England. Even if he were not inexperienced and Jewish, he was not part of the British aristocracy and was not socially connected. He also had no large business and industrial connections and no important family connections. However, he was a marvelous writer and speaker, a very fast learner, and turned out to be a political natural. Most historians rate him as one of the two or three greatest British Prime Ministers.
Trump often used the phrase "Drain the swamp" in his campaigning to mean get ride of the establishment figures who had, for the most part, dominated politics, for decades. When he was elected, he had to appoint a cabinet, but when he did so, it was almost exclusivly made up of people who had been a part of the political and corporate establishment -- the swamp.
I did not come here to make a cabinet for the ladies of this place [Washington], but for the nation.
The President's nominee for Secretary of War, John H. Eaton, produced much opposition on the grounds that Eaton's wife was rumored to be a "loose" woman.
In an ironic turn of the tables, Frank Kingdon, a staunch Roosevelt supporter wrote a book defending the President and used the phrase as a title, mocking the upper class hatred of FDR.
We could change the name of the President to any of the last 4 and change the issue to entitlements, and this would appear to be a modern editorial criticizing politicians of both parties for a lack of courage and failure to face significant critical issues. Henry Clay tried to forge a political compromise, but he was alone among the politicians for even dealing with the issue. The photo is of the Taylor Cabinet, none of whom offered any leadership on the slavery issue that was tearing the country apart,
