Executive Oversight Quotes

Question Period is not part of the legislative process, and has nothing to do with it. It is a means of monitoring the Executive that the Government cannot evade.

It is not easy for the courts to control the intelligence agencies. There has to be concerted and coordinated effort on part of the courts, the parliament, and the government.

As a member of Congress, a coequal branch of government designed by our founders to provide checks and balances on the executive branch, I believe that lawmakers must fulfill our oversight duty as well as keep the American people informed of the current danger.

I can tell you how bad our boards are... I don't have to watch Saturday Night Live anymore; I just go to the board meetings.

While I sign off on trades or free agents, I've rarely overruled my basketball people's decisions. But I'm not shy about steering the discussion or pushing deeper if something doesn't make sense to me.

What are we to do? Sit back and let the President police himself?

The idea that the special counsel regulations, which were written to provide the public with confidence against a coverup, would empower an attorney general to restrict disclosure in an investigation of the president is a nonstarter.

[Congress] is not the British Parliament, and I hope it never will become the British Parliament... Are we going to bring the president in here and have a question period like the prime minister has in Great Britain?

The Executive should be removed at the request of a majority of the State Legislatures

Most companies don't have a good mechanism to give the CEO real, honest feedback.

When it imposes expensive regulatory mandates on the private sector, Congress often acts on the basis of interest-group pressures, anecdotes, and the emotions of the moment. The executive branch is hardly perfect, but it is far less likely to do that.

Two successive commissioners in London police were fired by the mayor that came into office. That doesn't mean the police in London is not independent and does not exercise powers. Ultimately it is the political executive that has to answer.

Our government is composed of checks …

[Congress is] the chief aggrandizer of the Executive.

Remember, the enemy comes to kill still and destroy. But now they're going to inspect themselves? Oh, what could go wrong with that? Yes, don't call us. We'll call you, they say. And that's really good because [Barack] Obama is standing by with his mighty phone and his mighty pen in case they stretch the truth a little. And they start dropping bombs.

No president who performs his duties faithfully and conscientiously can have any leisure. If he entrusts the details and smaller matters to subordinates constant errors will occur. I prefer to supervise the whole operations of the government myself rather than entrust the public business to subordinates, and this makes my duties very great.

Innovative efforts should never report to line managers charged with responsibility for ongoing operations. The new project is an infant and will remain one for the foreseeable future, and infants belong in the nursery. The 'adults', that is, the executives in charge of existing businesses or products will have neither the time nor understanding for the infant.

Failure to subject the project, especially in its latter frenzied stages, to a cold and objective appraisal by the best operating talent available, particularly by those not involved in the operation Failure to advise the president, at an appropriate time, that success had become dubious and to recommend that the operation be therefore canceled Failure to recognize that the project had become overt and that the military effort had become too large to be handled by the agency alone

A great opera house isn't run by a director, but by a great administrator.

The President has now taken entire charge, his instructions are very brief and not clear, they are not issued with adequate knowledge of what has gone on before ...

In animation, the directors are part of a huge team of animators who all have opinions, too. It's a much more democratic process. Also, the animation executives oversee things more.