The major problem— of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them. To summarize: it is a well-kn...
Why did Mother ask you to help me rescue Gelsi?" I asked Leif. "She thought I could assist you in some way. Instead, I had tried to-" "Kill me? You can join the 'I Want to Kill Yelena Guild.' I hear they have six members in good standing. Valek is pr...
New Rule: If you married a manic-depressive, three of your children died, and while you were president civil war broke out and someone shot you in the head, your coin really shouldn't say, "In God We Trust.
New Rule: It's okay for the president to play ball in the house. It's easy to judge and say this scene detracts from the dignity of the White House--until you consider the end zone is between Clinton's semen stain and where Bush OD'd on a pretzel.
Consider the blundering anarchic system of the United States the stupidity of some of its lawmakers, the violent reaction, the slowness of its ability to change. Twenty-five key men destroyed could make the Soviet Union stagger, but we could lose our...
You went to school," Lee said. "I mean, at some point. And it didn't suit you very well. They wanted to teach you things you didn't care about. Dates and math and trivia about dead presidents. They didn't teach persuasion. Your ability to persuade is...
I guess even the prettiest things eventually end up stinking. Everything does. We all will die and rot and decay and be reborn as dirt or flowers or worms, or polar bears who will drown because their ice is all melting, or presidents of war-torn coun...
Some men escape the grip. Maybe their wives have no social ambitions; maybe they've hit a sentence or two in a 'dangerous book' that pleased them; maybe they started on the treadmill as I did and were knocked off. Anyway, they're the congressmen you ...
Without knowing why or how, I found myself in love with this strange Wanderess. Maybe I was just in love with the dream she was selling me: a life of destiny and fate; as my own life up until we met had been so void of enchantment. Those things: myst...
If the clicker became useless in grown men's hands, no games to watch, no highlights shown, ESPN left with only test patterns and re-runs of Rudy, wouldn't the indignation level be a whole lot higher? If sports, all sports, all levels, were shut down...
I search his eyes for the slightest sign of anything, fear, remorse, anger. But there's only the same look of amusement that ended our last conversation. It's as if he's speaking the words again. "Oh, my dear Miss Everdeen. I thought we had agreed no...
There is a distressing but not uncommon condition of presidents and other world leaders known as Worrying about Africa. It is usually picked up overseas as at summit meeting on world poverty or disease, and symptoms include painful twinges of guilt o...
Indifferent to truth, willing to use police-state tactics and vulgar libels against inconvenient witnesses, hopeless on health care, and flippant and fast and loose with national security: The case against Hillary Clinton for president is open-and-sh...
It is Nixon himself who represents that dark, venal and incurably violent side of the American character that almost every country in the world has learned to fear and despise. Our Barbie-doll president, with his Barbie-doll wife and his boxful of Ba...
The American story has never been about things coming easy. It has been about rising to the moment when the moment is hard. About rejecting panicked division for purposeful unity. About seeing a mountaintop from the deepest valley. That is why we rem...
White House Man: We have to control the intelligence from Saigon. Lyndon B. Johnson: Well don't let McNamara start sticking his damn nose in this thing! Every time he goes over to Saigon on some fuckin' fact-finding mission, he comes back and just sc...
Jim Garrison: What I need to know is why. Why are you telling us this? Willie O'Keefe: Cause that motherfucker Kennedy, stole that motherfuckin' election, that's why. Nixon, was gonna be one of the great presidents 'till Kennedy wrecked it up. Got ni...
Hans Gruber: Now, where is Mr. Takagi? Joseph Yoshinobu Takagi, born in Kyoto, Japan, 1937. Family immigrated to San Pedro , California, 1939. Interned Manzanar, 1942 to 43. Scholarship student University of California, 1955. Law degree, Stanford, 19...
Richard Nixon: [Reston swore to Zelnick earlier he would never shake Nixon's hand] Pleasure to meet you. [Offers Reston his hand] James Reston, Jr.: [after a pause, he shakily extends his own hand] Mr. President... Bob Zelnick: [after Nixon leaves] O...
James Bond: Special plane, lunch at the White House... how come? Felix Leiter: The President wants to thank you personally. James Bond: Oh, it was nothing, really. Felix Leiter: I know that, but he doesn't. James Bond: I suppose I'll be able to get a...
Pu Yi, at 15: Who is this George Washington? Reginald Fleming 'R.J.' Johnston: A famous American, your majesty. A revolutionary general, the first American president. Pu Yi, at 15: Ah, like Mr. Lenin in Russia? Reginald Fleming 'R.J.' Johnston: Not q...
