The Golden Fleece Award (1975–1988) was presented to those public officials in the United States who, the judges feel, waste public money. Its name is a tangential reference to the Order of the Golden Fleece and a play on the transitive verb to fleece, as in charging excessively for goods or services. United States Senator William Proxmire, a Democrat from Wisconsin, began to issue the Golden Fleece Award in 1975 in monthly press releases. The Washington Post once referred to the award as "the most successful public relations device in politics today." Robert Byrd, a Democratic Senator from West Virginia, referred to the award as being "as much a part of the Senate as quorum calls and filibusters."
Read more about Golden Fleece Award: Award, Award Winners
Famous quotes containing the words golden, fleece and/or award:
“Love took up the glass of Time, and turned it in his glowing hands;
Every moment, lightly shaken, ran itself in golden sands.
Love took up the harp of Life, and smote on all the chords with
might;
Smote the chord of Self, that, trembling, passed in music out of sight.”
—Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892)
“Every new stroke of civilization has cost the lives of countless brave men, who have fallen defeated by the “dragon,” in their efforts to win the apples of the Hesperides, or the fleece of gold. Fallen in their efforts to overcome the old, half sordid savagery of the lower stages of creation, and win the next stage.”
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“The award of a pure gold medal for poetry would flatter the recipient unduly: no poem ever attains such carat purity.”
—Robert Graves (1895–1985)