Presidential Quotes
"'We're not inflicting pain on these fuckers,' Clinton said, softly at first. 'When people kill us, they should be killed in greater numbers.' Then, with his face reddening, his voice rising, and his fist pounding his thigh, he leaned into Tony [Lake], as if it was his fault. 'I believe in killing people who try to hurt you. And I can't believe we're being pushed around by these two-bit pricks.'" -- George Stephanopoulos writing about the Somalia crisis in "All Too Human," page 214 [Progressive Review]
"Yes, the president should resign. He has lied to the American
people, time and time again, and betrayed their trust. Since he has
admitted guilt, there is no
reason to put the American people through an impeachment. He will
serve absolutely no purpose in finishing out his term the only possible
solution is for
the president to save some dignity and resign."
"I think it's plain that the president should resign and spare the country the agony of this impeachment and removal proceeding," Clinton said. "I think the country could be spared a lot of agony and the government could worry about inflation and a lot of other problems if he'd go on and resign."
"To confine impeachable conduct to indictable offenses may well be to set a standard so restrictive as not to reach conduct that might adversely affect the system of government. Some of the most grevious offenses against our constitutional form of government may not entail violations of the criminal law.....Io limit impeachable conduct to criminal offenses would be incompatible with the evidence...and would frustrate the purpose that the framers intended.... Impeachment was evolved.....to cope with both the inadequacy of the criminal standards and the impotence of the courts to deal with the conduct of great public figures. It would be anomalous if the framers, having barred criminal sanctions from the impeachment remedy....intended to restrict the grounds for impeachment to conduct that was criminal"
"The other thing we have to do is to take seriously the role in this problem of . . . older men who prey on underage women. . . . There are consequences to decisions and . . . one way or the other, people always wind up being held accountable."
"I ask that all Americans demonstrate in their personal and public lives... the high ethical standards that are essential to good character and to the continued success of our Nation."
"Undeniably, character does count for our citizens, out
communities, and our Nation, and
this week we celebrate the importance of character in our individual
lives... core ethical values
of trustworthiness, fairness, responsibility, caring, respect, and
citizenship form the foundation
of our democracy, our economy, and our society... Instilling sound
character in our children is
essential to maintaining the strength of our Nation into the 21st
century."
"The most ethical administration in the history of the Republic."
"In a number of jurisdictions, statutes against witness tampering, suborning perjury (encouraging perjury by threats or inducements), or obstruction of justice do not carry high enough penalties to either deter or substantially punish witness intimidation... defendants are reported to feel they have little to lose -- and a great deal to gain (from perjury and obstruction)." -1996 Deparment of Justice report "We continue to prosecute vigorously obstruction of our investigations. For example, in January 1995, a defendant was sentenced to 14 months incarceration after pleading guilty to obstructing justice by falsifying an affidavit submitted to a federal grand jury. I continue to be concerned about companies and individuals attempting to obstruct our investigations. I urge you to make clients and others aware, in the event of an investigation by the Division, that the penalties for obstruction are severe, and the division will seek the maximum penalty for obstruction of justice and perjury. We at the division, and I personally, believe that such conduct cuts at the very heart of law enforcement, and we take it with the utmost seriousness." -- Speech by Ann Bingaman, Assistant Attorney General, 1996 "We will lower the tax burden on middle class Americans by asking the very wealthy to pay their fair share. Middle class taxpayers will have a choice between a children's tax credit or a significant reduction in their income tax rate." Putting People First, September 1992. [ IN HIS OWN WORDS - Broken Promises From the President]
"[W]hen I was in England I experimented with marijuana a time or two, and I didn't like it. I didn't inhale."
"I want to make it very clear that this middle-class tax cut, in my view, is central to any attempt we're going to make to have a short-term economic strategy and a long-term fairness strategy, which is part of getting this country going again."
"We can't be so fixated on our desire to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans . . . ."
"The road to tyranny, we must never forget, begins with the destruction of the truth."
``The average working family's tax will go down about 10 percent, a savings of about $350 a year, and I won't finance it with increasing the deficit,''
Thomas Jefferson believed that to preserve the very foundations of our nation, we would need dramatic change from time to time. Well, my fellow citizens, this is our time. Let us embrace it. --
"We will never build enough prisons to end our crime problem".
"A society that will trade a little liberty for a little order will lose both, and deserve neither." --Jefferson [Feder, Bork ...] "...Bill Clinton has none of it. He has not a creative bone in his body. Therefore, he's a bore, and will always be a bore.''
"He needs to get a hard slap of reality in the face every once in a while. He has an arrogant side."
Speaker Newt Gingrich on Bob Dole and taxes ... Bob Dole is "the tax collector for the welfare state."
"Stop telling the truth about my record!"
That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves.
Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil in its worst state an in tolerable one; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamities is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer!
The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses [constitutes] an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our government -- Edward Bernays in 'Propaganda,' 1928 We fed 'em Xmas and New Years; now all the poor have to do is just fill the few meals until next Xmas -- Will Rogers The drug war is basically a technique for controlling dangerous populations internal to the country and doesn't have much to do with drugs. That's always been true. It goes back England in the 19th century when they made gin illegal and kept whiskey legal . . . Gin was the drink of the working class and whiskey was the drink of the upper class. . . When prohibition was instituted in the United States, the purpose was to close the saloons where immigrants and working class people came, but nobody stopped anyone from drinking in the rich suburbs. -- Justicia y Paz Percent of young black men under control of the justice system in Washington DC: 42%. In Baltimore: 56%. [Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice] "Using slick, full-color cards to glamorize marijuana is an overtly cynical attempt to promote marijuana use to children while turning a profit for yourself," said the letter, written by California Attorney General Dan Lungren. "InLine takes the position with these cards that this nation's offensive against drugs can be compared to the war the United States waged in Vietnam: obscenely expensive and completely cost inefficient, producing far more losers than winners, and very likely morally wrong." (Reuters, January 15) "Our rogue President, after selling face time..." --William Safire
More places to look ...
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President Clinton Denies Allegations December 22, 1993 (audio)