LLOYD CUTLER

Historically, cohesive political parties have been the glue that enables democratic political systems like ours to make the decisions needed to govern.

Leaks usually have more value to the public at large than the harm which they occasionally do.

Honorariums are really dishonorariums. So long as they continue, public trust in Congress will sink even below its minimal level today.... Public officials should have only one paymaster: the Government. When the Government pays too little, the temptation to find other paymasters becomes far harder to resist.

The United States is the only major democracy where divided government has become the norm.... For those who are disappointed in the current performance of our national political system, the fault, dear voters, may not be in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are ticket-splitters.

It's harder to pass a law than stop one.

The key to the [Supreme] court's critical constitutional role lies in the mystery of its future actions.

We should hold the presidential elections at least a few weeks before the congressional election so that the voters will know which party will control the White House.

There is no good behavior clause in the Constitution.

It's the duty of a lawyer to represent anyone for whom a responsible argument could be made.

Later in that administration, I was asked to take a job which I had to turn down as Assistant Secretary of State for Economic Affairs because we were just then putting together the merger of two small law firms that became this law firm. I couldn't leave them at that point.

I think the President himself is a remarkably intelligent, decent, ethical man. I think he did very well, but I think the job builds up over expectations which all candidates contribute to including this President that simply cannot be fulfilled.

Later in that administration, I was asked to take a job which I had to turn down as Assistant Secretary of State for Economic Affairs because we were just then putting together the merger of two small law firms that became this law firm. I couldn't leave them at that point.

In the end, the Foreign Ministry had no power at all to do anything.

The whole thing was done for internal political reasons to galvanize and unify the country against the Americans, and if they hadn't had that immediate opportunity they would have found another one.

I learned running the government for the Presidency, which I always thought was difficult, is even more difficult than I thought.

Certainly the existence of these huge nuclear force was important for the ultimate confrontation, let's say, over western Europe. You just can't use them to deal with a situation like Afghanistan.

And we made decisions on each of those matters which were ultimately upheld by the courts.

There is no good behavior clause in the Constitution.

Historically, cohesive political parties have been the glue that enables democratic political systems like ours to make the decisions needed to govern.

If you cannot tilt the playing field against convicted felons, you cannot tilt it against those politicians who have committed the lesser charge of being elected.

It's harder to pass a law than stop one.

Leaks usually have more value to the public at large than the harm which they occasionally do.

The key to the [Supreme] court's critical constitutional role lies in the mystery of its future actions.

We should hold the presidential elections at least a few weeks before the congressional election so that the voters will know which party will control the White House.

The only way you get to be a “wise man” is to outlive your contemporaries and keep your mouth shut.

Honorariums are really dishonorariums. So long as they continue, public trust in Congress will sink even below its minimal level today.... Public officials should have only one paymaster: the Government. When the Government pays too little, the temptation to find other paymasters becomes far harder to resist.

The United States is the only major democracy where divided government has become the norm.... For those who are disappointed in the current performance of our national political system, the fault, dear voters, may not be in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are ticket-splitters.

The great problem is how to discharge presidents who have outlived their usefulness to the country

It's the duty of a lawyer to represent anyone for whom a responsible argument could be made.