J. Edgar Hoover Quotes

He was referring to Sandra Fluke, a student at Georgetown University, a Catholic school whose health plans did not cover birth control pills. The Heath advisory committees had concluded that birth control pills were a critical element of women’s health. Congress was debating a rule that would exempt religions from having to provide birth control as a part of their health insurance if it was against their beliefs. However, universities, hospitals, museums and civil activities run by churches were not exempt, Ms Fluke testified before Congress that her birth control pills cost her much money out of pocket. Many conservatives throughout the country opposed the requirement, some on religious conscience grounds and others like Limbaugh who opposed because they opposed birth control itself. So Limbaugh concluded that since with insurance paying for birth control for women, the women were getting paid to have sex. Therefore Ms. Fluke was a prostitute and a slut. There was a national outrage over Limbaugh’s statements and many conservatives, especially those running for office were put in an awkward position. They realized the inappropriate logic and use of language and the meanness that Limbaugh exhibited, but with few exceptions they were afraid that if they opposed him publicly, Limbaugh would retaliate on the airways and he was the major Republican spokesman at the time. Although not a politician, he was in many ways the leader of the party. However, this time his mean, twisted, venomous, attack had gone too far. It was not a politician he had attacked this time; just an innocent young student. A number of his sponsors dropped him.

Planned Parenthood was at the time one of the most respectable, non-profit organizations. They never advocated or taught homosexuality, adultery, or bestiality, but the did teach and advocate birth control which made them anathema to some religious fundamentalists.

strict and intrusive law enforcement (See {595406})

Jackson's Secretary of War, John Henry Eaton, 1790-1856, had been having an affair with a married woman with a proclivity toward promiscuity. Her husband committed suicide and Eaton married her causing one of the great scandals of American history. It split Andrew Jackson's cabinet and ended with Jackson, who supported Eaton, replacing the entire cabinet except the Postmaster General. Vice President John C. Calhoun's chances for the Presidency died as he and Jackson broke over this scandal.

Morris was the only member of the Indiana Legislature to refuse to sign a resolution celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Girl Scouts of America. This quotation gives three of his reasons for not doing so. This quotation is particularly interesting as it shows the incredible tolerance the American Political system has for outliers. Morris did not just make these statements to pander to the arch conservative Tea Party constituency as there were other Tea Party members of the legislature who had no trouble with the Girl Scouts and the resolution. He actually believed them, and despite the obvious absurdity of the statements to people without his paranoia, he was willing to state his extreme views publicly. He did apologize after his absurdities, but then still refused to sign the resolution of celebration for the Girl Scouts on the grounds that they taught sex education.

The agent, at J. Edgar Hoover’s instruction had approached the editor of Martin Luther King Jr.’s hometown newspaper and offered Patterson a photograph of King and a white woman in front of a motel with the “information” that King was having an affair with the woman. The agent suggested that the story was that the minster while pretending to respect Christian morality in his public persona was actually violating basic moral standards. Patterson, like any qualified editor would realize that the photograph proved nothing about an affair. There might have been other staff nearby who were not framed in the picture that the FBI agents had taken. There might have been a meeting to discuss civil rights strategy or something else. To Patterson it was unheard of that a Federal Official should try encourage a newspaper to slander an American citizen. Even if true, the Federal Role was astounding. Actually, this was a very common tactic of J. Edgar Hoover and not at all unusual. Also, although it is not known whether King was having any kind of affair with the woman in the picture, King was not a faithful husband from a sexual point of view. At the time, facts about extramarital sex were not printed about politicians and other political figures even if the journalists knew of them (as with John F. Kennedy’s many liaisons) unless they affected the person’s job or made them less effective. It is not known whether Patterson knew anything of King’s peccadillos but that kind of keyhole journalism was not practiced by serious newspapers at the time even if the pictures could be confirmed. That would be “keyhole journalism”—peeping through keyhole to invade the personal privacy of people.

This quotation is hardly believable, even for an ultra extreme, evangelical, Christian, fundamentalist. His paranoia and homophobia went so far as to claim that somehow the only gay Congressman, Jared Polis, was going to bankrupt Christians who did not endorse his homosexuality. How he might do this Klingenschmitt never explained. But then to associate Polis with the Muslim Fundamentalist Terrorist organization ISIS—which executes homosexuals—and claim that Polis would behead Christians in America was over the top. The quotation illustrates the freedom of speech allowed in American political campaigning where the most absurd, libelous, falsehoods are allowed, as well as the fact that an obvious unbalanced person can freely run for office.

The NRA has not only become extremely right wing organization from its early non-partisan posture, but a few of the officers have demonstrated an anti-government paranoia that most extremists would think extreme such as this quotation. Here he is on political company with the Black Panthers, the KKK, the Aryan Nation and the most extreme of the “lunatic fringe”

Fischer was in the midst of a parliamentary debate and the President had ruled against him on a procedural matter.

Personal attacks have been made in the Congress ever since that body first met. However, they were infrequent and raised concern when they were made. However, in the late 1980s, there was a series of personal attacks made across the political parties culminating in the resignation of Wright as the Speaker of the House. Some Republicans had objected to the failure to confirm John Tower as Defense Secretary because of his serious alcoholism problem which was made public, and in turn made public some of Wright’s indiscretions. From then on the personal invective and attacks increases and there was retaliation by both parties that went on for decades. At first it was exposures of real incidents but by the 21st century, the attacks were often fabricated. For example, Barack Obama was called a “Socialist Muslim” by Republicans. See {624108}

Personal attacks have been made in the Congress ever since that body first met. However, they were infrequent and raised concern when they were made. However, in the late 1980s, there was a series of personal attacks made across the political parties culminating in the resignation of Wright as the Speaker of the House. Some Republicans had objected to the failure to confirm John Tower as Defense Secretary because of his serious alcoholism problem which was made public, and in turn made public some of Wright’s indiscretions. From then on the personal invective and attacks increases and there was retaliation by both parties that went on for decades. At first it was exposures of real incidents but by the 21st century, the attacks were often fabricated. For example, Barack Obama was called a “Socialist Muslim” by Republicans. See {624107}

He was the only candidate who was not visciously attacked and slandered by the others, and he did no attacking himself. However, he simply did not attract the voters as did the other candidates who were so negative about their opponents. The Republican party primary voters were so insistent on political party purity that most of the candidates were reduced to the lowest forms of debate and standards of veracity. All the candidates were weakened and diminished by that form of negative primary process. Mitt Romney finally won the nomination but had been bruised badly by the Republican primary election. He last the general election badly.

Partisanship had reached a heated pitch like America at the beginning of the 21st century. Note that she used the term “violence” to describe verbal assaults. Joseph Hume was the leader of the Radical Party.

Ms. Andrew Jackson’s divorce from her first husband was not done following all the legal requirements of the time. Technically, she was therefore a bigamist and an adulteress at the same time. While most Americans had no problem with this, there was then as there has been ever since a small, religiously driven, cultural conservative movement who objected to a President who was living with an adulteress in bigamy. Hammond was one of them. Just as Bill Clinton was very popular despite his sexual, moral transgressions, so was Jackson. However the conservatives of Washington DC made her life socially miserable.

Some of the Right Wing attacks in President Obama were without any foundation of facts. All presidents have to work extremely hard, and if they were not “workaholics” they could not even get nominated for the post. Many critics saw a racist element in this attack. In Sununu’s youth there was a slander by which racists used to refer to Blacks as “lazy and shiftless”. Obama was the first Black President and whereas that demonstrated that the nation had gotten past much of its racism, some still remained and this might have been a vestige of it.

Ever since the end of WWII, many Republicans have called their Democratic Opponents Marxists and Communists even for a conservative Democrat like Kennedy. Even Ronald Reagan stooped to this tactic before he ran for the Presidency.

Goodpaster served as Staff Secretary and Defense Liaison Officer to President Eisenhower from 1954–1961. McCarthy accused many competent, loyal Americans of disloyalty, incompetence and treason. The reason that this particular quotation was noteworthy was that it particularly offended President Eisenhower and galvanized him into action to stop McCarthy’s excesses. See {632334}.

See {632333} for the offensive McCarthy attack on Zwicker.

He dispatched the army to eliminate sin.

Bunch was the undersecretary-general of the United Nations who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his mediation efforts in the Middle East. Archie Roosevelt and his extreme right wing associates thought that anyone who worked in the UN was a communist and had no respect for the Norwegian Nobel Prize Committee. In the spirit of Archie Roosevelt’s father, the Theodore Roosevelt made the award to Buche and ignored Archie’s slanderous attack. Surprising to most people who know of President Theodore Roosevelt’s general liberal views, his 4th son was an ultraconservative who founded and joined racist, anti-Semitic, right wing organizations, and to the distress of many in the family and without lent his name to many of the most extreme right wing causes and organizations.