An honest politician is…

THE FAMOUS DISHONESTLY-ATTRIBUTED QUOTE: “An honest politician is one who, when he is bought, will stay bought.”         Simon Cameron (1799-1889)         American businessman and politician who served as U.S. Secretary of War under President “Honest Abe” Lincoln         A legendary quip that has long been linked to Cameron, though it appears that he never said it. In his excellent book, The Quote Verifier, quotation maven Ralph Keyes notes that there is no record of Cameron making any such remark. Keyes speculates that it was probably falsely attributed to Cameron by one of his many political enemies and over time was assumed to be an actual quote.

THE GEORGE CARLIN CONNECTION: “An honest politician is as much an oxymoron as jumbo shrimp.”        Harrison Finzel        Arizona journalist        In an article in The State Press newspaper, October 20, 2015        George Carlin's Oxymorons cartoon by Mike Keefe

THE JOEY ADAMS VARIATION: “An honest politician is one who’s never been caught.”        Joey Adams (1911-1999)        American comedian           From his column “Strictly for Laughs”        The New York Post, January 5, 1999

CALDWELL’S COUNTERQUOTE: “An honest politician is either a hypocrite — or he is doomed.”        Taylor Caldwell (Janet Miriam Taylor Caldwell; 1900-1985)        British-born American novelist        From her novel Captains and the Kings (1972)

MENCKEN’S OBSERVATION: “An honest politician is regarded as a sort of marvel, like a calf with five legs, and the news that one has appeared is commonly received with derision.”       H.L. Mencken (Henry Louis Mencken; 1880-1956)        American journalist, editor, language maven and curmudgeon        In his book The American Language (1919)

REEVE’S OBSERVATION: “In the good old days, an honest politician was one who lied only when he had to. But now lies are becoming the accepted language of government at the highest levels, the theory being that sooner or later the people of the country will become so confused and disillusioned that they will just mind their own business, and leave governing to well-placed liars.”        Richard Reeves (b. 1936)        American newspaper columnist        “Bush & Co. Are Turning Washington into a Liar's Club”        From his syndicated column, December 17, 1989

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Rleated reading: some recently-published political quote books...

 

“The rich are different” – and so are politicians and the French

FAMOUS QUOTE AND COUNTERQUOTE: F. Scott Fitzgerald: “The rich are different from you and me.” Ernest Hemingway: “Yes, they have more money.”        Their legendary quote-counterquote exchange

UPDATED COUNTERQUOTE: “The rich are different from you and me: they cheat more on their taxes.”        Lynn Brenner        American financial writer        Newsday, April 2, 1995

POLITICIANS VERSION: “Politicians are different from you and me. The business of reaching for power does something to a man…he instinctively calculates each new situation and each new situation and each other man with the simplest question: What can this do for me.”        Richard Reeves        American presidential historian          in his book A Ford, not a Lincoln (1975)

NAKED TRUTH VARIATION “The French are different from you and me, assuming, of course, that you're not French, in which case the French are different from me, and the Americans are different from you.”        Leslie Nielsen        Canadian actor and comic genius        In his book The Naked Truth (1994)

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