Leon Panetta Quotes (37 Quotes)

You are going to be arguing about issues that we all saw Democrats paid a heavy price for in the last election. Democrats have a tremendous opportunity right now to hit Bush where he's weak, which is on oil prices and the war. Don't hit him where he's strong, which is these values issues.

You've got to sit down with all of the special-interest groups on your side before you announce that decision and walk them through it. You need to determine if they're going to support it.

if Gore became president and you had a new message and new individual up there.

I think the bottom line is, this is one of the few BRAC rounds in history where California comes out doing very well.

I've spent the last several hours in an appearance before the grand jury largely detailing the operations of the White House and the physical setting of the White House during the time in which I was chief of staff. I believe I've answered all of the questions that were asked of me. And I will not comment any further on my testimony,

My conclusion is that at this late date, it's just not realistic to expect that I could put together an effective campaign,

On Thursday, when the House was scheduled to vote, Regan called Minority leader Robert Michel of Illinois and promised to support the 211 million jobs program for the elderly in a future bill. Administration lobbyists also passed the word that the President would not fight for his extra 2 billion in defense funds in a subsequent measure. With those pledges, however, Reagan undercut his argument for vetoing the measure in the first place. Why this charade ... Why go through this process.

The oceans continue to be in crisis and little progress has been made. We are loosing our fisheries. Ninety percent of big fish are already gone.

It's more a signal to the outside world. It's their way of saying they're paying attention.

They are the one area of hope that has really made progress. They have passed at the state level what we want at national levels.

You really ought to think twice before you appoint a staff member to a position like Supreme Court justice,

He obviously has to go through Congress to get things done. But he can't be seen as tied to its failings. He has to use the bully pulpit effectively and confront Congress effectively.

Republicans carried the blame for the last shutdowns, andwould be asking for real trouble,

People start doing it by the numbers. They don't have that kind of excitement you had in the first term, dealing with issues, dealing with the country,

If these are baseless charges, it'll be OK. On the other hand, if there's something there, and it leads to him having to step out of office, it may be time to do some repair work and that may not have the consequences you would expect,

There are a hell of a lot of other issues that ought to be debated and considered beyond the question of Roe v. Wade,

The political and substantive reality is that the agenda has to change. I don't think they have any choice.

You can't slam dunk a tax cut package the size they're talking about, ... Late Edition.

They feel confident that we will be able to bring the person responsible for this outrage to justice,

I think the real test is whether or not he can regain control of the political process in Sacramento, ... If he looks like he's just another partisan hack, then I think he's in trouble.

I was at the White House at that time. We were concerned that when the president vetoed these things, he would bear responsibility for the shutdown. But Congress in the end became the vocal point for public anger. And that could be the case with this Congress as well.

disciples of balanced budgets. ... And at some point, they'll be proven right.

Over the last 10 or 15 years, there's almost been a deliberate strategy to push all the tough decisions to the very end of a Congress, with the hope that you can ram them through as members try to get away for the holidays.

We finally have the FDA's support, the ability to provide needed drugs to those that are suffering from cancer,

I think they're facing the largest challenge I've seen in recent history, in terms of an administration having to decide whether they continue to borrow and spend, or whether they face up to very difficult choices that have to be made to discipline the budget. I think we'll find out in the next few months what that decision is going to be.

I don't think there is any question but that the indictment of Tom Delay gives another boost to the Democrats in terms of their argument that the GOP leadership doesn't pay attention to ethics requirements.

There is a tremendous lack of leadership in both parties to address this issue.

The public does not translate the deficit into something that really bites them. We are going to have to get public support for action on the deficit.

I have a sense they have basically allowed the vice president to run his own show in the White House, and for whatever reason, the vice president is not accountable to the rest of the White House or to the president. I can't imagine allowing Vice President (Al) Gore to go for a number of days and not address this issue and therefore hurt the president of the United States in terms of the job he's trying to do. The first priority in the White House is not the vice president. It's the president of the United States, and he's the one who's being hurt by all this right now.

I am personally not aware of any improper relationship, sexual or otherwise, by this president with any of the White House interns or anyone else for that matter,

It seemed to me there was an opportunity to bring new life into the White House. You can't operate on a 24-7 clock and not lose energy. I'm not saying replace Card, but bring in some new people. He (Bush) is a loyal guy, likes his comfort zone and doesn't like to make changes. But it doesn't give the president any new ideas.

The president is out there today trying to talk about health care, and the reality is nobody cares about what he's saying on health care because this news is consuming everything. No president could tolerate that or should tolerate it.

If the Democrats feel this issue is taking more and more away from their focus on the other issues in Washington -- the loss of the surplus, what's happening with the economy -- then there's going to be increasing pressure on him to resign or step down.

One of the things that has made Iraq such a tragedy is you've got the administration, which is kind of locked into its view you've got Congress, which is scrambling all over the place and politics, which has invaded this issue on all sides. The good thing here is we can stand back and assess this.

You're talking about a real problem facing this country at the very moment when we're expecting something like 70 to 80 million baby boomers to retire and to add additional costs to Social Security and Medicare. We're headed towards a fiscal cliff,

Both sides of the spectrum are really going to use the opportunity provided by Katrina to really begin to test some ideas that they otherwise couldn't test.

If he continues to behave in a way that is aggressive and continues to use force in that part of the country, we will continue to extract prices, ... Late Edition.