Power Brokers Quotes

We have the best government that money can buy.

Politics are impossible without spoils.... You have to deal with men as they are ... you must bribe the masses with spoils.

The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office. Their principal device to that end is to search out groups who pant and pine for something they can't get and to promise to give it to them. Nine times out of ten that promise is worth nothing. The tenth time is made good by looting A to satisfy B. In other words, government is a broker in pillage, and every election is sort of an advance auction sale of stolen goods.

[Politics is a] war of all against all … a quest for power after power that ceaseth only in death.

In Washington, every closet has a revolving door.

Organized crime has a corrupting influence on all Bulgarian institutions including the government, parliament and judiciary. In an attempt to maintain their influence regardless of who is in power, organized crime figures dominate all the major political parties. As these figures have expanded into legitimate businesses, they have attempted—with some success—to buy their way into the corridors of power….

Conspiracy theorists of the world, believers in the hidden hands of the Rothschilds and the Masons and the Illuminati, we skeptics owe you an apology. You were right. The players may be a little different, but your basic premise is correct: The world is a rigged game.

Real politics are the possession and distribution of power.

There are a lot of people in Congress who would never have made a great career or fortune in any other profession. But after they spend a while hanging out with the rich guys, they begin to feel they've been undervalued, and that an eventual seven-figure income as a lobbyist isn't just an opportunity, it's their due.

Both major political parties have long since been seized by the same powerful group of manipulators.

Washington [DC] is a zero sum place.

Party government isn't organized for efficiency, nor to serve the people. It is organized to provide jobs for the boys

The Philippines, it has a politics of patronage. Family and favors, in addition to the old cliche of guns, goons and gold, really do still hold a lot of sway.

In Washington, there are jobs that have official titles: chief of staff, campaign manager, director of communications. Then there are all these vague and murky headings over people who are just special consultants or advisers. We really don't know what their gig is.

But 'This Town' is official Washington. It's political Washington. It's not the Washington that clogs New York Avenue. It's not the Washington that lives in Gaithersburg. It's not the Washington that accounts for most of the population. 'This Town' refers to the people who think they run your country.

The first iron rule of American politics is Follow the Money. This explains, oh, about 80 percent of what goes on in Washington.

The hard truth is that Trump was not exceptional. He was just another amoral Western businessman, one of many whom the ex-KGB elite have promoted and sponsored around the world, with the hope that they might eventually be of some political or commercial use.

It never fails to astonish me how cheaply a politician can be bought.

And when people in power can stay in power they do very little to tinker with the apparatus that put them in power.

The corporate flacks, hacks, lobbyists, and influence peddlers, the practitioners of modern PR ... have become a kind of occupation army in our democracy.

This [Washington DC] is a town of anecdotes.

You must diligently cultivate relationships with … men of privilege. Both you and your supporters should work to convince them that you have always been a traditionalist. Never let them think that you are a populist.

I had worked in politics with Johnson and Nixon before becoming a historian and biographer. I kept discovering these dirtier, murkier threads in American politics that led back to Vegas' gambling interests and criminal connections.

Access is vital in lobbying. If you can't get in your door, you can't make your case.

Washington's a cesspool of money.