Criticisms
In a recent CounterPunch article, "How the Bankers Bought Washington: Our Cheap Politicians," Andrew Cockburn points out an incident of graft in the 1950s: "Just a generation ago, our own legislators displayed a more robust attitude to those seeking favor. In his instructive memoir 'Wheeling and Dealing -Confessions of a Capitol Hill Operator,' former Senate aide Bobby Baker recounts his efforts in collecting the half million dollars in cash demanded by Senator Robert Kerr of Oklahoma from the Savings and Loan industry in return for a favorable legislative adjustment" .
Read more about this topic: Robert S. Kerr
Famous quotes containing the word criticisms:
“The sway of alcohol over mankind is unquestionably due to its power to stimulate the mystical faculties of human nature, usually crushed to earth by the cold facts and dry criticisms of the sober hour. Sobriety diminishes, discriminates, and says no; drunkenness expands, unites, and says yes.”
—William James (1842–1910)
“I have no concern with any economic criticisms of the communist system; I cannot enquire into whether the abolition of private property is expedient or advantageous. But I am able to recognize that the psychological premises on which the system is based are an untenable illusion. In abolishing private property we deprive the human love of aggression of one of its instruments ... but we have in no way altered the differences in power and influence which are misused by aggressiveness.”
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)