# Stupid things politicians say. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 26, 2005, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-things-politicians-say/337209 "2005-12-26T02:29:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2005, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-things-politicians-say/337209/21 "2005-12-27T22:01:03Z")
> [@Left Hand of Dorkness](#): > > I think Bush has shown himself a lot more willing to repress the opposition in the course of his leadership than I would be; that’s just further proof that _I_ need to be the Dictator of the World and not him, since I wouldn’t go around repressing people like that. > > Daniel So, ah, how would you go around repressing people then? My favorite stupid thing a politician said: One term Congressman Fred Hineman (I probably mispelled his name) was elected in 1994, defeating David Price in NC’s 4th district. During a press conference regarding reforming welfare, Chief Hineman described himself as “lower middle-class.” In addition to his congressional salary, he recieved a very generous pension from the Raleigh Police Department. IIRC, his annual income was more than $180K. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2005, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-things-politicians-say/337209/22 "2005-12-27T22:03:13Z")
> [@Maus Magill](#): > > So, ah, how would you go around repressing people then? With my army of trained she-frogs. But I’d rather not hijack the thread. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Frostillicus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Frostillicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frostillicus)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2005, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-things-politicians-say/337209/23 "2005-12-28T04:20:01Z")
“Brownie, you’re doing a heckuva job!” – GW Bush (R - Clueless) ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2005, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-things-politicians-say/337209/24 "2005-12-28T04:26:17Z")
Nelson Rockefeller in the 1968 presidential primaries: “Let’s take the average guy, making a hundred thousand a year” ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2005, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-things-politicians-say/337209/25 "2005-12-28T08:31:11Z")
> [@liberty3701](#): > > CLEARLY, Mr. Bush is joking. Either that, or just expressing his innermost dreams and wishes… > [@liberty3701](#): > > OBVIOUSLY, the man is saying that he can’t rule the country with an Iron Fist because we live in a Democracy, and we have checks, balances, etc., and so he will have to compromise or negotiate on whatever issue he is referring to. Oh, yeah, the last five years of the Bush Administration have been _such_ a hallmark of bipartisan cooperation, checks and balances, and the carefully-controlled throttling of executive powers. :rolleyes: He might have said it with tongue-in-cheek, but you know what they say about actions and words. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2005, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-things-politicians-say/337209/26 "2005-12-29T06:52:29Z")
This thread made me go find an old email that had a link to things Al Gore did NOT say. I’ve never voted for him in the three chances I had, but let’s at least tell the truth about him. [http://www.gargaro.com/notgore.html](http://www.gargaro.com/notgore.html) ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2005, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-things-politicians-say/337209/27 "2005-12-29T06:54:08Z")
“If the president does it, it’s not illegal.” -Richard Nixon “I am not a crook.”-Richard Nixon again ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2005, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-things-politicians-say/337209/28 "2005-12-29T14:41:18Z")
> [@Martin Hyde](#): > > Cite? The second quote was cited in Michael Moore’s film F9/11. I know a lot of people consider Moore to be a complete fabricator, but one thing he never did was synthesize quotes. Out of context, occasionally, but never actually falsified. Bush said those words. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2005, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-things-politicians-say/337209/29 "2005-12-29T15:14:51Z")
Bergenfield, New Jersey’s mayor Richard Bohan at a press conference yesterday, defending Bergenfield’s Fire Chief decision not to evacuate a 24 unit apartment building when a neighbor called compaining of the gas odor: _Anyone take your shoes off and put your in that man’s boots_ The building exploded, killing three people and displacing 24 families on December 13th. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2005, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-things-politicians-say/337209/30 "2005-12-29T16:47:27Z")
[Top Ten Conservative Idiots](http://www.democraticunderground.com/top10/) Updated every week. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2005, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-things-politicians-say/337209/31 "2005-12-30T16:42:53Z")
“There is much to be said and done about the man-made annihilation of New Orleans, caused NOT by a hurricane but by the very specific decisions made by the Bush administration in the past four and a half years.” - Michael Moore. ---
**Author:** ![Frostillicus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Frostillicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frostillicus)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2005, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-things-politicians-say/337209/32 "2005-12-30T18:13:12Z")
> [@Frostillicus](#): > > “Brownie, you’re doing a heckuva job!” – GW Bush (R - Clueless) Based on this link, I think my nomination wins. 😃 [http://articles.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20051229164509990024&cid=class=lbr](http://articles.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20051229164509990024&cid=class=lbr) ---
**Author:** ![Syntropy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Syntropy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syntropy)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2005, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-things-politicians-say/337209/33 "2005-12-30T18:54:14Z")
Our governors never fail to embarrass: “My vision is to make the most diverse state on earth, and we have people from every planet on the earth in this state.”–Governor Gray Davis “I think that gay marriage should be between a man and a woman.”- Arnold Schwarzenegger This one is just too damn good: “But today, Hillary, I need to know if I can count on you to stand by my side in my campaign against Hillary Rodham Clinton. I need you and every New Yorker on my side. But most important in this difficult campaign, I need people like you who I can trust.” --New York Republican Senate candidate Jeanine Pirro, accidentally sending a fundraising appeal to Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) “I do know that it’s true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could, if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down.” --Bill Bennett, former Education Secretary and author of “The Book of Virtues” “So many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this (chuckle) – this is working very well for them.” --Former First Lady Barbara Bush, on the Hurricane flood evacuees in the Astrodome in Houston ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2006, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-things-politicians-say/337209/34 "2006-01-01T09:40:09Z")
Does anyone remember the exact quote where Bush mentioned how Trent Lott’s vacation home was destroyed in the hurricane? “Everybody kept their shoes there. The maids…everbody.” -Imelda Marcos denying all six hundred pairs of designor shoes were her’s. “I have a black, I have a woman, two Jews and a cripple.” -former Secretary of the Interior James Watt “If you want an example of the failures of socialism, don’t go to Russia. Come to America, and see the American Indian reservations.” -James Watt. “On the surface, selling arms to a country that sponsors terrorism, of course, clearly, you’d have to argue it’s wrong, but it’s the exception sometimes that proves the rule.” -George Bush (the elder) ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2006, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-things-politicians-say/337209/35 "2006-01-01T14:39:53Z")
> [@Paul in Saudi](#): > > “There is much to be said and done about the man-made annihilation of New Orleans, caused NOT by a hurricane but by the very specific decisions made by the Bush administration in the past four and a half years.” - Michael Moore. Michael Moore is a politician? I mean sure, he was elected to his local school board when he was 18 so he could get his principal fired, but is he, today, a politician? Yeah, I didn’t think so. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2006, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-things-politicians-say/337209/36 "2006-01-02T17:29:31Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Does anyone remember the exact quote where Bush mentioned how Trent Lott’s vacation home was destroyed in the hurricane? [Here ya go:](http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/09/20050902-2.html) > [@](#): > > We’ve got a lot of rebuilding to do. First, we’re going to save lives and stabilize the situation. And then we’re going to help these communities rebuild. The good news is – and it’s hard for some to see it now – that out of this chaos is going to come a fantastic Gulf Coast, like it was before. Out of the rubbles of Trent Lott’s house – he’s lost his entire house – there’s going to be a fantastic house. And I’m looking forward to sitting on the porch. A tweak for the Canuckistanis: “The Olympics can no more lose money than a man can have a baby.” - Mayor Jean Drapeau after Montreal won the right to host the 1976 Olympics [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-things-politicians-say/337209.md?page=1)