Harold L. Ickes Quotes

Honest Graft

Farmers who are legislators are the easiest to buy and seduce.

We've seen a lot of dirty politics in Ireland.

I’ll use prostitutes to go out and seduce … high campaign officials.

What people fail to appreciate is that the currency of corruption in elective office is, not money, but votes.

It is true that power corrupts. The hope at the polling stations and the actions of the elected representatives, unfortunately, often turn to be opposite. The power of ballot turns into the power of wallet. Some law-makers become law-breakers.

Too often, they play to whatever group is the loudest down at City Hall, and they buy them off, essentially.

Our form of democracy is bribery, on the highest scale.

D.C. is more corrupt than Hollywood. It really is.

People in Washington do things that they shouldn’t do because they owe somebody.

Politics was just about as dirty in those days as it is now.

Tom Delay is a bag man for cigarette companies.

The boss of all bosses operates like a shifty-eyed precinct captain on the make ... These are activities on would expect of a small-time ward heeler, not a figure of such influence and stature.

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

Congressmen are not bribed anymore. They simply have a lot of friends who are willing to help them out whenever they find it necessary.

The T. and P. folks are working hard on their bill. … They offered one M. C. one thousand dollars cash down, five thousand when the Bill passed and ten thousand of the bonds when they got them, if he would vote for the Bill.

CBC: Corrupt Bastard’s Club

Abramoff did not own me, but we did engage in the culture of corruption together.

My choice early in life was either to be a piano-player in a whorehouse or a politician. And to tell the truth there's hardly any difference.

The structure of private campaign finance has essentially pre-corrupted our politicians, so that they can't even recognize explicit bribery because it feels the same as what they do every day.

At one time in Montana, our elected officials were literally bought and owned by companies.

It is hard to imagine any single special interest trying to buy an office without a motive.

Anybody who doesn't know that politics is crime has got a few screws loose.

Oh, that all the things my father had told me about how disgusting Washington is are true. And again it's the system - there are lots of nice, well-meaning people there. But it's a sleazy place. And politics is all about doing favors.

Politics, as the word is commonly understood, are nothing but corruptions.