John Dean Quotes (34 Quotes)


    You really have to experience the feeling of being with the president in the oval office... It's a disease I came to call Ovalitis.

    But he said now seemed to be the time -- that he wanted to get it on the historical record,

    I think it is a great initiative.

    Had the Senate or House, or both, censured or somehow warned Richard Nixon, the tragedy of Watergate might have been prevented. Hopefully the Senate will not sit by while even more serious abuses unfold before it.

    This is a part of a very consistent, long-term, early announced policy of this presidency that they are seeking to build presidential power for the sake of presidential power.


    Bill Rehnquist makes Barry Goldwater look like a liberal.

    Not since Richard Nixon stiffed the Congress during Watergate has a White House so openly and arrogantly defied Congress' investigative authority. Nor has any activity by the Bush administration more strongly suggested they are hiding incriminating information about their relationship with the now-moribund Enron, or other heavy-hitting campaign contributors from the energy business.

    To me, this is not really and should not be a partisan question. I think it's a question of institutional pride of this body, of the Congress of the United States.

    I began by telling the president that there was a cancer growing on the presidency and that if the cancer was not removed the president himself would be killed by it.

    I think it's a question of institutional pride of this body. There has been a growing tendency to let the president do what he wants.

    I don't think there is any question there were times he (Nixon) wanted to get the story out and have it go away. But then every time you heard the problems (he) realized he couldn't.

    Politically, for him to be released with a sense of debt andor interest relative to the president, could be momentous.

    I've been surfing so many years and it's a pretty strong part of my life so I'm not gonna give that up.

    I must say, I think I have probably more experience firsthand than anybody might want in what can go wrong and how a president can get on the other side of the law.

    Silicon Valley Bank, founded in 1983, focuses its efforts on serving high-tech and biotech businesses. It also makes a fair amount of real estate and commercial loans and caters to religious organizations. Through the niche approach, we bring value-added knowledge of the industries, ... We are known as the bank that lends to emerging growth companies.

    There's no hard evidence offered whatsoever in this piece, no corroborating evidence, no inside information only Deep Throat would know,

    Our history here in Sackets Harbor, our whole renaissance that's taken place over the last 25-30 years, is based on the fact that the community has come to understand how important it's history is, and how important it's history is to our future as well.

    If he is paroled, we may get some credit and he will start off with a constructive relationship with the president. He would be a dedicated factor to box in Kennedy, and he might eventually be key for us to organized labor.

    I think it's important that the committee sometimes hear from the dark side. Those of us from that perspective can add some insights that might not otherwise be available to a body like this.

    No president that I can find in the history of our country has really ever adopted a policy of expanding presidential powers for the sake of expanding presidential powers. And I think that's what we have going on.

    I appear today because I believe, with good reason, that the situation is even more serious.

    Rove had no idea what the specific consequences of giving a reporter the name of a CIA agent about whom he says he knew nothing would be,

    I think he'll have a very profound legacy. He has nudged the court to the right.

    I failed to convince President Nixon that morning and the rest, as they say, is history.

    I found that in March of 1973, that Bob Haldeman, the White House chief of staff, was told by one of the lawyers over at the re-election committee that Jeb was saying to them that the plan to break in the Watergate had been approved by the president,

    The plan is to deny criminals the use of the road.

    We have have been an advocate of world languages for a long time. And we've got to keep the place clean.

    With Bush, I've long thought this presidency has been swallowed by his vice president. Dick Cheney is not interested in uniting with anybody.

    Cheney's standing has suffered mainly because Libby emerges as such a liability. Fitzgerald threw the book at him not for anything he said to reporters but for what he said to the FBI and the grand jury. The indictments suggest that the aide whose aim was to spin the war might have tried to spin the prosecutor. Lying was a remarkable act of stupidity on Libby's part, ... He's old enough to know better. He watched Watergate and Iran-contra. To try to pull the leg of the grand jury was really quite remarkable.

    The resolution should be amended, not defeated, because the president needs to be reminded that separation of powers does not mean an isolation of powers. He needs to be told he cannot simply ignore a law with no consequences.

    CCTV will make a real difference, but the human touch remains essential in cutting crime.

    We are all encouraged that Bush appears, really for the first time in his experience on the stage of presidential politics, relaxed. His comfort is our comfort.

    Nixon's illegal surveillance was limited Bush's, it is developing, may be extraordinarily broad in scope.

    I will give you one last bit of advice because you're going to be independent, naturally. And that is don't let the fact that you're under heat change any of your views... So just be as mean and rough as they said you were.


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