“I belong to no organized party. I am a Democrat.” - Will Rogers
“If Gladstone fell in the Thames, that would be a misfortune. But if someone fished him out again, that would be a calamity.” - Benjamin Disraeli
“You really have to get to know Dewey to dislike him.” - Robert A. Taft
“John Connally’s conversion to the GOP raised the intellectual level of both parties.” - Frank Mankiewicz
“An empty cab pulled up to the House of Commons and Stanley Baldwin got out.” - Winston Churchill
“There is scarcely a noble principle in the American Constitution that [Nixon] hasn’t defended in theory or defied in practice.” - James Reston
Theodore Roosevelt “wanted to be the bride at every wedding and the corpse at every funeral.” - Alice Roosevelt Longworth, his daughter
“Egad, sir, I do not know whether you will die on the gallows or of some loathsome disease.” “That will depend, milord, on whether I embrace your principles or your mistress.” - The Earl of Sandwich and John Wilkes
“Why do people take such an instant dislike to me?” “Because it saves time.” - Attributed to then-White House Chief of Staff John Sununu and an irreverent aide
“If you’re not a liberal when you’re 25, you have no heart. If you’re not a conservative by the time you’re 35, you have no brain.” – One of several witticisms apparently misattributed to Winston Churchill
“Ma, Ma, where’s my Pa? Gone to the White House. Ha, ha, ha.” – 1884 Republican chant of derision directed to Grover Cleveland, who had admitted to fathering a child out of wedlock
“Blaine, Blaine, James G. Blaine, the continental liar from the state of Maine!” – Democrats’ catcall directed at Cleveland’s opponent during that 1884 election
I can’t remember who said it and I’m paraphrasing, but I remember one politician quipping something to the effect of: if he ever managed to walk on water, the headlines in his local newspaper would say “[Mr. Politican] can’t swim!” the next day.
Also (misattributed?):
Bessie Braddock: Sir, you are drunk. Churchill: And you, madam, are ugly. But in the morning, I shall be sober.
There was a good one the other week in the Quebec legislature. The Parti Québécois recently proposed a bill to create a Quebec citizenship that would be required in order to vote; acquiring this citizenship for new immigrants would require such things as a French test. (I’m used to the PQ disappointing me, but this is the first time in a while they’ve seriously pissed me off.)
Anyhow, during debate on another issue, Liberal cabinet minister Yolande James muffed the title of the leader of the PQ. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I sometimes make mistakes in French. I hope the hon. member won’t take away my citizenship.”
Also, during the last campaign, Stephen Harper went to chat with a group of seniors playing bridge at a campaign stop. He enquired who was winning. “The NDP so far,” he was told.
In the 1984 Presidential Debates, between Ronald Reagan and Walter Mondale, Reagan was asked by one reporter about whether, as the oldest President in American history, he would have the stamina to deal with a long crisis, like the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The reporter asked “Is there any doubt in your mind that you would be able to function in such circumstances?”
Reagan replied: “Not at all, Mr. Trewhitt and I want you to know that also I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent’s youth and inexperience.”
"“Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator. You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”
Joseph Welch, to Sen. McCarthy
“Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress… But I repeat myself.” - Mark Twain
“A lot has been said about politics; some of it complimentary, but most of it accurate.” - Eric Idle
“Half of the American people never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half.” - Gore Vidal
“Ninety-eight percent of the adults in this country are decent, hard-working, honest Americans. It’s the other two percent that get all the publicity. But then - we elected them.” - Lily Tomlin
“Democracy’s the worst form of government except for all the others.” - Winston Churchill
during the 2000 canadian federal election campaign, liberal party strategist warren kinsella mocked the then leader of the canadian alliance stockwell day; a biblical literalist & young earth creationist, on national television, by presenting a stuffed ‘barney’ doll and declaring, “this was the only dinosaur ever to walk the earth with humans.”
You know, matt, I was sort of thinking like you, but then a péquiste explained the bill to me, and it makes a lot more sense than was reported in the media. (I still don’t really agree with the bill though.) Immigration is a privilege, and there are already required tests for immigrants who want to become Canadian citizens. I believe they in fact are required to show proficiency in English or French. But now, if Quebec is a nation in Canada, it would make sense for it to have a national citizenship (I believe many sub-country entities already have that), and to require proficiency in French in order to acquire it. Because right now, if an immigrant – presumably one selected by the federal government and not the provincial government – decides, “screw it, I’m in Canada, I will speak English only”, we can express our disapproval but there really isn’t anything we can do.
Furthermore, as you point out, acquiring the Quebec citizenship for new immigrants would require these tests, while current Quebec residents who are already Canadian citizens would be grandfathered in. This includes you, me, Mrs. James and even Howard Galganov, if he’s still around. Plus, the bill wouldn’t even require citizenship to vote, just to run for office. Yes, it is mostly symbolic. And anticonstitutional, for that matter, which I guess Marois must have known.
Actually, I believe “Ma, ma, where’s my Pa?” was the Republican chant of derision. The Democrats came up with the counter-zinger “Gone to the White House, ha ha ha.”
Her husband, Nicholas, was viewed as one of the sharpest senators on the Hill. He was also a notorious womanizer. Once, one of his arch-rivals entered a room where Longworth was seated, rubbed his hand on Longworth’s bald head, and said “Your head feels like my wife’s ass.” Longworth rubbed his own head and said “Yeah… about the same at that.”
“Ronald Reagan, perhaps the greatest triumph of the embalmer’s art.” Gore Vidal, when Reagan was still living and still president.
Other Vidal on Reaganisms:
“There’s a lot to be said for being nouveau riche, and the Reagans mean to say it all.”
"As the age of television progresses the Reagans will be the rule, not the exception. To be perfect for television is all a President has to be these days. "
When informed Calvin Coolidge was dead, Dorothy Park asked “How can they tell?”
I understand the line of argumentation you’ve expressed, severus. But this:
is to me a sufficient counterargument. I more or less agree with Claudette Charbonneau: being a nation is very well and good, but if we haven’t seen fit to become an independent state yet, it ill behooves us to start dicking with people’s voting rights. (As if the motivation behind it isn’t transparently obvious as well, given the timing.)