Ninety percent of politics is deciding whom to blame.

If a politician murders his mother, the first response of the press or of his opponents will likely be not that it was a terrible thing to do, but rather that in a statement made six years before he had gone on record as being opposed to matricide.

In Washington it is an honor to be disgraced. you have to have been somebody to fall.

Washington, under Democrats and Republicans, has a profoundly neurotic attitude toward 'the people.' It is built on equal parts of suspicion, loathing, fear, respect and dependence.

The forces of retribution are always listening. They never sleep.

There is such a thing as tempting the gods. Talking too much, too soon and with too much self-satisfaction has always seemed to me a sure way to court disaster. The forces of retribution are always listening. They never sleep.

Everybody's for democracy in principle. It's only in practice that the thing gives rise to stiff objections.