Dwight Eisenhower actually said...
Indeed I have. It is nothing in the world but an effort to get the best kind of people applying for governmental service that you can get, to get the White House out of the channel, so far as possible, to get these people recommending to the Civil Service Commission or to the departments in question, and to make a record of the people who do so recommend these individuals so that if we have any difficulty we know exactly who is responsible.
10/26/1954