Johnson Hagwood Quotes
…the War Department was…something that stood between the Army and Congress; that way to get legislation for the Army was no to try to educate Congress and the people to Army methods, but to educate the War Department to congressional methods.
Johnson Hagood, General, 1911
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Hollings who was one of the senior experienced senators was offended by the degree to which the George W. Bush Administration and the Republican leadership had turned to lobbyists to draft legislation and amendments to pending legislation. Lobbyists often have specialized information that members of Congress do not have, so there has been in modern times communications between lobbyists and members of Congress and their staffs. However, during the Bush Presidency the practice reached an extreme where lobbyists would even write the legislative language and give it to the members in whom they had invested by giving them large campaign contributions and many perks. K Street is the fanciest street in Washington DC with some of the most expensive office space. A substantial proportion of the lobbyists have K Street offices, hence the metaphor.
In subsequent years military officers got around this restriction by privately expressing confidential opinions to members of Congress and the press. In the Iraq war for example most senior military officers felt that more troops were needed in Iraq. However, since the President decided on the final troop count only one official, the Army Chief of Staff, has publicly expressed the view that it was insufficient. He was retired early. The stricture still stands.
The Attorney General had taken the position that the Congress could not pass laws in time of war that the President was required to follow if in his judgment as Commander in Chief, the war effort and safety of the nation was at stake—that he could instruct the military to ignore laws passed by Congress. The legal theory of the George W. Bush administration was that the President had “inherent powers” under the Constitution and that Congress could not supersede these by legislation.
His main reason for believing this is that all appropriations bills must be initiated by the House of Representatives. Lobbyists therefore often give the House more attention than the Senate.
The speaker, allegedly drunk, had crashed his car into two others in Georgetown. At the time, the Congress controlled such things as salaries of Washington civil servants.
This is one of the rare quotations which shows how the paid lobbyists work with a few legislators and legislative staff members to get their legislative changes written into law without having to persuade a majority of the Congressional Committee much less a majority of the Congress. Abramoff went to jail along with others in one of the biggest political scandals in modern America.
The U. S. Senate had deteriorated to the point where Senators were only working 3 days per week—Tuesday through Thursday. The Senators would spend the other 4 days in their home states—usually raising money for the next election where millions of dollars will be needed.
