Politicians Say the Darndest Things...

Also:

• The US pledge of allegiance
• Bill of NOT Rights
• Why I am an Anarchist +
• Ant and Grasshoper outside John Galts Valley
• Modern Little Red Hen
• Dangers of a cloned population
• Explaining US F.... Policy for 2003 to your children +
• The National Debt
• Peace

"We know when politicians are lying... their lips move."

"If We Quit Voting, Will They All Go Away?"

""POLITICIANS & DIAPERS BOTH NEED TO BE CHANGED OFTEN, AND FOR THE SAME REASON"

"I have discovered the art of deceiving diplomats. I tell them the truth and they never believe me." -- Camillo Di Cavour

• "I love California. I practically grew up in Phoenix."
  Former US Vice-president Dan Quayle
  
• "It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it."
  Former US Vice-president Dan Quayle
  
• "We are sorry to announce that Mr. Albert Brown has been quite unwell, owing to his recent death, and is taking a short holiday to recover,"
  Parish Magazine
   
• Hawaii is a unique state. It is a small state. It is a state that is by itself. It is different from the other 49 states. Well, all states are different, but it's got a particularly unique situation,"
  Dan Quayle, US VP
  
• "The loss of life will be irreplaceable."
  Dan Quayle
  
• "I was recently on a tour of Latin America, and the only regret I have is that I didn't study my Latin harder in school so I could converse with those people."
  Dan Quayle
  
• "What a waste it is to lose one's mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is."
  Dan Quayle
  
• "It is wonderful to be here in the great state of Chicago..."
  Dan Quayle
  
• "If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure."
  Dan Quayle
  
• "We are ready for an unforeseen event that may or may not occur."
  Dan Quayle
  
• "Potatoe"
  Dan Quayle
  
• "I stand by all the misstatements that I've made."
  Dan Quayle
  
• "I haven't committed a crime. What I did was fail to comply with the law,"
  David Dinkins, New York City Mayor, answering accusations that he failed to pay his taxes.
  
• "Outside of the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the country,"
  Mayor Marion Barry, Washington, DC
  
• "The private enterprise system indicates that some people have higher incomes than others."
  Gerry Brown
  
• "It's no exaggeration to say that the undecideds could go one way or another."
  George Bush, US President
  
• "I have opinions of my own-strong opinions-but I don't always agree with them."
  George Bush, US President
  
• "I was under medication when I made the decision to burn the tapes."
  Richard Nixon, US President
  
• "I'm not going to have some reporters pawing through our papers. We are the president."
  Hillary Clinton commenting on the release of subpoenaed documents
  
• "China is a big country, inhabited by many Chinese."
  Former French President Charles De Gaulle
  
• "That lowdown scoundrel deserves to be kicked to death by a jackass, and I'm just the one to do it."
  A congressional candidate in Texas
  
• "If you let that sort of thing go on, your bread and butter will be cut right out from under your feet."
  Former British foreign minister Ernest Bevin
  
• "I was provided with additional input that was radically different from the truth. I assisted in furthering that version,"
  Colonel Oliver North, from his Iran-Contra testimony
  
• "I've read about foreign policy and studied-I know the number of continents,"
  George Wallace, 1968 presidential campaign
  
• "We don't necessarily discriminate. We simply exclude certain types of people."
  Colonel Gerald Wellman, ROTC Instructor
  
• "Traditionally, most of Australia's imports come from overseas."
  Keppel Enderbery
  
• "Question: If you could live forever, would you and why? Answer:
  "I would not live forever, because we should not live forever, because if we were supposed to live forever, then we would live forever, but we cannot live forever, which is why I would not live forever."
  Miss Alabama in the 1994 Miss USA contest
  
• "Whenever I watch TV and see those poor starving kids all over the world, I can't help but cry. I mean I'd love to be skinny like that, but not with all those flies and death and stuff,"
  Mariah Carey
  
• "Researchers have discovered that chocolate produces some of the same reactions in the brain as marijuana. The researchers also discovered other similarities between the two, but can't remember what they are,"
  Matt Lauer on NBC's Today show, August 22
  
• Smoking kills. If you're killed, you've lost a very important part of your life."
  Brooke Shields, during an interview to become spokesperson for a federal antismoking campaign
  
• "I've never had major knee surgery on any other part of my body."
  Winston Bennett, University of Kentucky basketball forward
  
• "Not only is he ambidextrous, but he can throw with either hand."
  Duffy Daugherty, football coach and sports analyst
  
• "We've got to pause and ask ourselves: How much clean air do we need?"
  Lee Iacocca
  
• "Please provide the date of your death."
  from an IRS letter
  
• "We're going to turn this team around 360 degrees."
  Jason Kidd, upon his drafting to the Dallas Mavericks
  
• "I don't feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them. There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves."
  John Wayne
  
• "Half this game is ninety percent mental."
  Philadelphia Phillies manager Danny Ozark
  
• "Without censorship, things can get terribly confused in the public mind."
  General William Westmoreland
  
• "Be sure and put some of those neutrons on it,"
  Mike Smith, Baseball pitcher, ordering a salad at a restaurant
  
• "We are not without accomplishment. We have managed to distribute poverty equally,"
  Nguyen Co Thatch, Vietnamese foreign minister
  
• "The word 'genius' isn't applicable in football. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein,"
  Joe Theisman, NFL football quarterback and sports analyst
  
• "Fiction writing is great. You can make up almost anything,"
  Ivana Trump, upon finishing her first novel
  
• "The people in the Navy look on motherhood as being compatible with being a woman."
  Rear Admiral James R. Hogg
   
• "If somebody has a bad heart, they can plug this jack in at night as they go to bed and it will monitor their heart throughout the night. And the next morning, when they wake up dead, there'll be a record."
  Mark S. Fowler, FCC Chairman
  
• In an attempt to reach the people of Poland in their own language, President Jimmy Carter began his speech with a Polish phrase, which he was told was a warm greeting. However, he was ill advised as when he delivered the greeting, he was astounded by the response of the audience. Someone within the contingency, not the speechwriter, leaned over and told him that he had just said........."I desire the Pols carnally."
   
• "Clinton lied. A man might forget where he parks or where he lives, but he never forgets oral sex, no matter how bad it is." - Barbara Bush
  

See also:

• http://www.factcheck.org/ Excellent site with real and unbiased (?) analysis of political statements.
• http://www.snopes.com Debunking urban legends, email rumors and other sources of questionable information. Of special interest is the list of rumors which have been shown to be true.