FAMOUS LINES….Over at the Huffington Post, Norm Ornstein is hosting a competition for the most memorable lines in political history:
At lunch today, the discussion turned to Marion Barry, and I reminisced about a key element of his enduring legacy: “The bitch set me up.” It won’t make number one on the list; my first-cut candidate there is “I am not a crook.” “It all depends on the meaning of the word is” will be somewhere up there. A new candidate, moving up on the rail is “The insurgency is in its last throes.”
That sounds like fun! I’d probably nominate “You won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore,” assuming the trickster can be allowed two entries. Going back a bit further, how about Andrew Jackson’s wrongheaded but nonetheless splendidly spiteful “The court has made its decision…now let them enforce it.” George Aiken’s advice to “declare victory and go home” deserves a spot, as does Jimmy Carter’s non-invocation of “malaise” ? surely the most famous word in political history that was never actually uttered.
I assume we’re limiting this to American political history, and excluding phrases from prepared speeches. With that in mind, leave your nominations in comments.
