NIXON

ON FEAR VS. LOVE:

People react to fear, not love - they don't teach that in Sunday School, but it's true."

ON ETHICS:

"Publicly, we say one thing....Actually, we do another."

ON JEWS:

But by God, they're exceptions. But Bob, generally speaking, you can't trust the bastards. (Referring to Jews to Bob Haldeman)

The Jews are irreligious, atheistic, immoral bunch of bastards.... The lawyers in government are damn Jews.

You can never put, John, any person who is a Jew on a civil rights kind of case, or freedom of the press kind of case, and get even a ten percent chance. . . . Basically, who the hell are these people that stole the papers? It's too bad. I'm sorry. I was hoping one of them would be a gentile.

"You know, it's a funny thing, every one of the bastards that are out for legalizing marijuana is Jewish. What the Christ is the matter with the Jews, Bob? What is the matter with them? I suppose it is because most of them are psychiatrists."
- May 26, 1971 (White House Tapes released March, 2002)

What about the rich Jews? The IRS is full of Jews, Bob.
-14th of September 1971

JEWS VS. BLACKS:

NIXON: Jewish families are close, but there's this strange malignancy that seems to creep among them — radicalism. I can imagine how the fact that Ellsberg is in this must really tear a fella like Henry to pieces — or Garment. Just like the Rosenbergs and all that. It just has to kill them. I feel horrible about it.
ZIEGLER: Could make up an English name.
HALDEMAN: - Rosenstein could change his name. - _[general laughter]
ZIEGLER: It is right. It's always an "Ellsberg.'
NIXON: Every one's a Jew. Ellsberg's a Jew. Halperin's a Jew.
HALDEMAN: Gelb's a Jew.
NIXON: But there are [unclear] — Hiss was not a Jew. Very interesting thing. So few of those who engage in espionage — are Negroes. - In fact, very few of them become Communists. If they do, they like, they get into Angela Davis — they're more the capitalist type. And they throw bombs and this and that. But the Negroes. — have you ever noticed? - Any Negro spies?
HALDEMAN: Not intellectual enough, not smart enough - not smart enough to be spies.
NIXON: The Jews — the Jews are, are born spies. You notice how many of them are just in up to their necks?
HALDEMAN: A basic deviousness.

ON HIS CRITICS:

N: I think we can destroy him [John Dean] -- we must destroy him.
Haig: Have to.
N: We never can allow this to happen - even if I was guilty as hell, but I'm not (unintelligible). I was dragged into this, son of a bitch, because of stupid people. Well-intentioned stupid people.
Haig: That's something entirely different. Here we've got a vicious little coward who's trying to protect his ass at any cost.
N: And therefore he's got to be destroyed.
-May 8, 1973

ON MEXICANS VS. BLACKS:

"I have the greatest affection for them [blacks], but I know they're not going to make it for 500 years. They aren't. You know it, too. The Mexicans are a different cup of tea. They have a heritage. At the present time they steal, they're dishonest, but they do have some concept of family life. They don't live like a bunch of dogs, which the Negroes do live like.'

ON BLACKS:

"The second point is that coming out - coming back and saying that black Americans aren't as good as black Africans - most of them, basically, are just out of the trees.  Now, let's face it, they are."
-Richard Nixon to Donald Rumsfeld July 11, 1971 (White House Tapes)

"You have to face the fact that whole problem [welfare] is really the blacks. The key is to devise a system that recognizes this while not appearing to...'
President Richard Nixon
-Alone In the White House, p. 110

ON INDIANS:

"The Indians are bastards anyway," Kissinger told the president.
"They are starting a war there."
"While she [Gandhi] was a bitch, we got what we wanted too," Kissinger said.
"She will not be able to go home and say that the United States
didn't give her a warm reception and therefore in despair she's
got to go to war."
"We really slobbered over the old witch," Nixon told Kissinger
-White House Tapes,  Nov. 5, 1971

ON GREEKS:

"I don't want to see this country to go that way. You know what happened to the Greeks.
Homosexuality destroyed them. Sure, Aristotle was a homo, we all know that, so was Socrates."
-May 26, 1971 (White House Tapes)

ON ITALIANS:

"They're not like us. They smell different, they look different, they act different.  The trouble is, you can't find one that's honest.'
Richard Nixion to John Ehrlichman
-White House Tapes


GEORGE W. BUSH

ON FREEDOM AND POWER:

"There ought to be limits to freedom."
- May 26, 1999

"If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator."
-CNN transcript from 12/18/2000 (photo-op with Congressional leaders)

"You don't get everything you want. A dictatorship would be a lot easier."
-Governing Magazine July, 1998

"A dictatorship would be a heck of a lot easier, there's no question about it."
-Business Week, July 30, 2001

"This is an impressive crowd: the Haves and the Have-mores. Some people call you the elite - I call you my base.'
- at the Al Smith Dinner, New York, October 20, 2000.

"When you're the president's son and you've got unlimited access combined with some credentials from a prior campaign, in Washington, D.C., people tend to respect that. I mean, access is power. And I can find my dad and talk to him any time of the day."'
- August, 1992

ON AMERICA'S SECURITY:

"I don't know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don't care. It's not that important. It's not our priority."
- George W. Bush, 3/13/2002

"People don't need to worry about security."
- February 23, 2006, on his Administration approving the sale of six major U.S. shipping ports to the United Arab Emirates. Two of the hijackers involved in the September 11, 2001, attacks came from the Persian Gulf country, and most of the money for the plot was funneled through the banking center of Dubai. Dubai was a key transfer point for illicit nuclear technology sales to North Korea, Iran and Libya that were led by Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan.

ON BLACKS:

"Do you have blacks, too?'
-to Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso


DICK CHENEY

ON HAVING PRINCIPLES:

"Principle is OK up to a certain point, but principle doesn't do any good if you lose."
- Dick Cheney, White House Chief of Staff, 1976.

"We also have to work the dark side, if you will. We have to spend time in the shadows. It's going to be vital for us to use any means at our disposal."
- September 16, 2001

AS A ROLE MODEL FOR AMERICA'S CHILDREN:

"Go fuck yourself."
- On June 22, 2004 Leahy and Vice President Dick Cheney participated in the US Senate class photo. During this time, Cheney upbraided Leahy for Leahy's recent excoriations of Cheney over Halliburton's alleged war profiteering. The discussion ended with Cheney telling Leahy to "... go fuck yourself" and giving Leahy the middle finger.

ON CIVIL RIGHTS:

In 1986, Cheney voted against a sense-of-the-House resolution calling on the white-controlled government in South Africa to free Mandela. (He eventually was released in 1990.) Cheney also opposed economic sanctions against South Africa. He voted against measures that sought to ensure the application of a variety of US civil rights laws.
- Michael Kranish, Boston Globe, p. A13 Jul 26, 2000

ON THE THREAT OF SADDAM HUSSEIN:

"The question in my mind is how many additional American casualties is Saddam worth? And the answer is not very damned many.'
-to the Discovery Institute after the first Gulf War, on August 14, 1992, when he was Secretary of Defense.

"Saddam Hussein's offensive military capability, his capacity to threaten his neighbors, has been virtually eliminated.'
- April 29, 1991, at the Soref Symposium talking about the First Gulf War.

DONALD RUMSFELD

ON LYING:

"Don't quote me on this, okay? I don't want to be quoted on this, so don't quote me - Sometimes the truth is so precious, it must be accompanied by a bodyguard of lies."
- U.S. Department of Defense, News Briefing, September 25, 2001

ON THE SANCTITY OF HUMAN LIFE:

"Have you killed anyone yet?"
- to General Charles Holland

ON BLACKS:

This July 22, 1971, conversation (National Archives) lasted about an hour and focused on Rumsfeld's future in the Nixon administration. At the time, the 39-year-old Rumsfeld was counselor to the president.
Nixon: "It doesn't help. It hurts with the blacks, and it doesn't help with the rednecks because the rednecks don't think any Negroes are any good."
Rumsfeld: "Yes."
Nixon: "Black Americans aren't as good as black Africans. Most of them are basically out of the trees ... Now, my point is, if we say that, they [Nixon opponents] say, 'Well, by God.' Well, ah, even the Southerners say, 'Well, our n--ger is [unintelligible].' Hell, that's the way they talk!"
Rumsfeld: "That's right."
Nixon: "I can hear 'em."
Rumsfeld: "I know."
Nixon: "It's like when our black athletes, I mean the Olympics, are running against the other black athletes, the Southerner may not like the black but he's for that black athlete."
Rumsfeld: "That's right."
Nixon: "Right?"
Rumsfeld: "That's for sure."

CONDOLEEZA RICE:

Rice has served on the board of directors for the Chevron Corporation, the Charles Schwab Corporation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Transamerica Corporation, Hewlett Packard, The Carnegie Corporation, The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, The Rand Corporation, and KQED, public broadcasting for San Francisco.
She was also on the Board of Trustees of the University of Notre Dame, the International Advisory Council of J.P. Morgan, and the San Francisco Symphony Board of Governors.
She also headed Chevron's committee on public policy until she resigned on January 15, 2001, to become National Security Advisor to President George W. Bush. Chevron honored Rice by naming an oil tanker Condoleezza Rice after her, but controversy led to its being renamed Altair Voyager.[9][10][11]

SCOOTER LIBBY:

In 1996, Libby wrote a novel titled "The Apprentice,' which has recently gained new attention. A New Yorker columnist reprinted passages describing extremely graphic scenes of pedophilia, bestiality, rape and incest. One particular scene describes the rape of a young girl by a bear. These scenes are too lurid to be posted on this site, however, you can read the New Yorker article via this link:

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/articles/051107ta_talk_collins


KARL ROVE:

ON THE OUTING OF A CIA AGENT:

"Wilson's wife is fair game.'
- to Chris Matthews, July 21, 2003, one week after the "outing' of undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson (reported in ABC News Original Report, 10-1-2003)

Rove also did work during those years for clients other than politicians. From 1991 to 1996, he advised tobacco giant Phillip Morris, ultimately earning $3,000 a month via a consulting contract. In a deposition, Rove testified that he severed the tie in 1996 because he felt awkward "about balancing that responsibility with his role as Bush's top political advisor" at a time when Bush was governor of Texas and Texas was suing the tobacco industry.

Allegations of conflict of interest
In March 2001, Rove met with executives from Intel, successfully advocating a merger between a Dutch company and an Intel company supplier. Rove owned $100,000 in Intel stock at the time but had been advised by Fred Fielding, the White House's transition counsel, to defer selling the stock in January to obtain ethics panel approval. Rove offered no advice on the merger which needed to be approved by a joint Pentagon-Treasury Department panel since it would give a foreign company access to military sensitive technology. [36] In June 2001, Rove met with two pharmaceutical industry lobbyists. At the time, Rove held almost $250,000 in drug industry stocks. On 30 June 2001, Rove divested his stocks in 23 companies, which included more than $100,000 in each of Enron, Boeing, General Electric, and Pfizer. On 30 June 2001, the White House admitted that Rove was involved in administration energy policy meetings, while at the same time holding stock in energy companies including Enron.

Ben Miller is a New York City-based writer

Posted June 29, 2007 2:55 PM