“Here is one of the first rules of politics: it’s not enough that I do well; I must also destroy my enemy.”

Lobbying is the world’s second – oldest profession.

Childbirth is no more a miracle then eating food and a turd coming out of your ass.

I don’t know….Are we the only ones who are brave on the planet? I mean, all the brave people live here I mean, it’s just stupid, I think. I’m embarrassed, I’m embarrassed every time I hear it.

I think we ought to call (Republicans who sign the Norquist no tax pledge) exactly what they are – they are traitors and they don’t deserve to hold elective office in this country.

The solidarity – now, you can’t challenge [Donald Trump] until he gets there [White House], but let me tell you, we are united. We are going to do our job.

In FY 2006, interest payments alone on the national debt cost us $406 billion. . . . What a waste. . . .

Things are not as bad as they seem. They are worse.

In politics there are no principles, just opportunities

That $406 billion is pathetically squandered on interest, just because we lacked the discipline to pay our bills when due.

I think Joe [Madison] is right. What we have to do is call him out on every one of these things and then maybe somebody will take the sweet machine away from him.

The Republican Party has become overwhelmingly so extreme that it’s hardly a traditional political party anymore.

Once you’ve built the big machinery of political power, remember you won’t always be the one to run it.

The Negro was a political football between his former slave master and Northern political adventurers.

Political leaders are expert at saying nothing.

Political systems are run by self-selecting politicians. We don’t draft people; it’s not jury duty.

Dealing with the health of people is more important than political considerations.

If you spend 72 hours in a place you’ve never been, talking to people whose language you don’t speak about social, political, and economic complexities you don’t understand, and you come back as the world’s biggest know-it-all, you’re a reporter. Either that or you’re President Obama.

First would be the literary side, then the spiritual and philosophical. The political side is required principally because of the necessity of the current Russian position.