Legislative Influence Quotes

Give me the power to issue a nation’s money; then I do not care who makes the laws.

I have no doubt that the Congress is active in manipulative politics.

Lyndon Johnson was perhaps the greatest political arm twister in the country’s history.

Commisar D'Amato [Referring to U. S. Senator Alphonse D'Amato (Republican, NY)

Anybody with any brain can figure out that if they can get on the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, that’s where they ought to be because that’s where the money is. Once I got on Defense I went from being the skunk to being the prettiest girl at the party.

The longer you're here [in Congress] the better seniority looks.

No man ever exercised less influence in the Senate or the House of Representatives than he, but no man ever exercised more power as a political leader.

I understand the significance of being one of 18 senators in Oklahoma history.

Concentration of wealth yields concentration of political power. And concentration of political power gives rise to legislation that increases and accelerates the cycle.

The passion for office among members of Congress is very great, if not absolutely disreputable, and greatly embarrasses the operations of the Government. They create offices by their own votes and then seek to fill them themselves.

The roots of power in the White House are often bourbon and branch water taken with the President at the end of the day.

Lobbyists have more offices in Washington than the President. You see, the President only tells Congress what they should do. Lobbyists tell'em what they will do.

Washington has political power combined with the insider illusion of being in control.

The United Mine Workers and the CIO have paid cash on the barrel for every piece of legislation that we have gotten…

I've asked the Department of the Interior inspector general to look into how much manpower and taxpayer money has been spent responding to ALEC-supported bills that force federal land managers to give land to states.

The thing is that we live in a presidential system with a parliamentary constitution. Congress has a lot of weight in Brazil, and the president cannot always do when he wants; he does what he can.

I think it accrues to Hawaii's benefit that I have friends in Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer and Dick Durbin. We're already geographically isolated, so it's really critical that we don't become politically isolated.

When legislators do something that doesn't make a whole lot of sense, there's always the suspicion that they're in somebody's pocket.

The people are responsible for the character of their Congress.

I would love to meet with the Black Caucus, it's great, the Congressional Black Caucus, I think it's great.

The notion that Congress can change the meaning given a constitutional provision by the Court is subversive of the function of judicial review; and it is not the less so because the Court promises to allow it only when the Constitution is moved to the left.

I have a four-year term; presidents have a two-year term, because the midterm elections are so important.

We may please ourselves with the prospect of free and popular governments. But there is great danger that those governments will not make us happy. God grant they may. But I fear that in every assembly, members will obtain an influence by noise, not sense. By meanness, not greatness. By ignorance, not learning. By contracted hearts, not large souls.

If we win, we'll make history, and I'll serve you on the Agriculture Committee.

I have never felt that it was my duty to attempt to coerce Senators or Representatives, or take reprisals.