Political Quotes

“Mr. President, the Watergate scandal, which is the single incident in modern U.S. history that most damaged public confidence in honest government, involved burglaries and dirty tricks that were paid for using secret campaign donations. Even by the weak standards of the time, much of the secret money was illegal. More than 20 corporations and organizations were fined and some executives went to jail because their secret payments to the Nixon campaign violated the law. Now a donor can make such secret donation dedicated to who knows what nefarious purpose and spend unlimited amounts in secret with what has, to this point, been the acquiescence of the IRS. Post-Watergate history warns us as well. We are all familiar with the revelations about former Senator John Edwards. His personal failings got most of the media attention, but let's not forget the financial heart of his problem: While running for President, he sought and received secret amounts of cash from a major campaign donor in order to conceal embarrassing facts that might damage the campaign. Yet huge secret payments to campaigns at this moment in our history are rife. We need to look no further than this capital city in which we work to see the dangers of secret money. The residents of Washington, DC, have learned in recent weeks that the current mayor benefited from what Federal prosecutors have called a ``shadow campaign'' of huge secret donations from a major city contractor.…”