Special Interest Quotes

#1. It was clear that the special interest groups in California really wanted the Chinese to be shut out of the country, because that was where the racial tension was the greatest.

Iris Chang

#2. I've made it clear that I'm not taking special interest PAC money or accepting donations from lobbyists - ever. I want to represent the interests of the citizens.

Stephen Pagliuca

#3. Private prisons have a special interest in tapping the burgeoning immigrant groups to fill beds and cells, especially in the post-9/11 period of the so-called "war on terror." The

Mark Lewis Taylor

#4. There is but one special interest that we should be working for, and that would solve just about all of our problems, and that is our liberty.

Ron Paul

#5. I'm sorry I'm not gay or Jewish, so I don't have a special interest group of journalists that support me.

Vincent Gallo

#6. In Maine, we are fortunate to have a Clean Elections system that allows legislators to turn down corporate special interest money. At the national level, Congress should follow Maine's example by empowering the voices of small donors.

Chellie Pingree

#7. As America slept, our constitutional quilt was slowly being unraveled by special interest... I hope you like the cold.

A.J. Garces

#8. I want to be able to say what's on my mind and in my heart and what I think is helpful and useful without somebody getting angry, some special interest group deciding this is the time to silence a voice of dissent and attack affiliates, attack sponsors. I'm sort of done with that.

Laura Schlessinger

#9. But fight him we must. You were recruited to Watford because we believe the
Humdrum has taken a special interest in you. We want to protect you; I vow to do so with my life. But you must learn, Simon, as soon as possible, how best to protect yourself.

Rainbow Rowell

#10. When it comes to federal elections law, Tom DeLay and his special-interest friends live by one set of rules, and everyone else lives by a very different set.

Rahm Emanuel

#11. If everyone in America can easily see who and what their lawmakers are requesting taxpayer money for, we can keep elected officials honest, end the days of political, special interest favors, and reduce wasteful spending.

Kirsten Gillibrand

#12. We need to take politics out of health care. Congress will cave to pretty much any special interest on the subject.

Jim Cooper

#13. I'm not a caterer. I just have to stay with my creative convictions. At some point, you have to just get past the special-interest groups and do what you're there to do, which is make a movie.

Ron Howard

#14. The people of this country, not special interest big money, should be the source of all political power.

Paul Wellstone

#15. If you look at all the lobbyists in Washington, this is not a democracy. This is ruled by special interest groups. That includes the military, the pharmaceutical industry, the people who produce mechanized debt, GMO foods. We are prisoners.

Deepak Chopra

#16. I think the press has an interest in communicating to its viewers or readers, and their viewers or readers drive profit for those news organizations, so I think those news organizations have a certain bias toward their own readers. Yeah, I think they are a special interest. Of course they are.

Mark McKinnon

#17. I'm running for president because I've had enough of the oil barons, the status-quo apologists, the special-interest lobbyists running amok.

Dick Gephardt

#18. If the people that believed the moon landing was staged on a movie lot had access to unlimited money from large carbon polluters or some other special interest who wanted to confuse people into thinking that the moon landing didn't take place, I'm sure we'd have a robust debate about it right now.

Al Gore

#19. People with Asperger's couldn't control what they were interested in. It was a stroke of luck that his special interest was financial markets and not, say, collecting lawn mower catalogues.

Michael Lewis

#20. Being a woman is of special interest only to aspiring male transsexuals. To actual women, it is simply a good excuse not to play football.

Fran Lebowitz

#21. There's an institution here called the National Sound Archive, and there's a character who works there, Paul Wilson. He takes a very special interest in the history of the music and advised Martin Davidson of the existence of these tapes.

Evan Parker

#22. At a time when special interest money is being showered on legislators in Washington, grassroots donors offer members of Congress a refreshing independence. The $25 and $50 donor is not looking for special favors. He or she is simply expecting their Congressman to go do the right thing.

John Sarbanes

#23. To be fair, lying is part and parcel of public life. Every politician has lied about something because they are owned by the special interest groups that finance their elections.

Peter Schuyler

#24. I tell myself not to feel sexually threatened. I am of no special interest; he could just as easily be angling for the printer.

Joe Dunthorne

#25. When you go to Washington now, you can feel a sense of fear in the air - the fear to do anything, or say anything, that might affect the polls, or give the other side an advantage, or offend a special interest.

Michael Bloomberg

#26. Despite support from a majority of Americans, a majority of the House of Representatives, and a majority of the Senate, Keystone XL is stuck - stalled by special-interest politics.

Kevin McCarthy

#27. Special-interest publications should realize that if they are attracting enough advertising and readers to make a profit, the interest is not so special.

Fran Lebowitz

#28. Being alone can be a very effective way of calming down and is also enjoyable, especially if engaged in a special interest, one of the greatest pleasures in life for someone with Asperger's syndrome.

Tony Attwood

#29. The different Washington, D.C.-based groups and the different special interest groups, they all want to be able to pick who they want to be a senator. They don't speak for everyone, and they definitely don't speak for Oklahomans.

James Lankford

#30. I've owned a business for 26 years. My family isn't in politics and my supporters aren't special interest groups in Madison and Milwaukee.

Mark Neumann

#31. We consume everything like potato chips. In this environment, I suspect the cartoonist's connection with readers is likely to be superficial and fleeting, unless he taps into some fervent special interest niche. And that audience, almost by definition, will be tiny.

Bill Watterson

#32. You don't get real reform by pandering to every special interest. With cap and trade we wound up with a bill that didn't accomplish much, was enormously complicated and expensive.

Brian Baird

#33. I'll spend whatever it takes to get my message out and to be competitive with these career politicians. I'm not going to take a penny of special interest money.

Jeff Greene

#34. I think we have to look at the whole way campaigns are financed. The No. 1 problem is PAC and special-interest money.

Stephen Pagliuca

#35. Complete free trade is not politically feasible. Why? Because it's only in the general interest and in no one's special interest.

Milton Friedman

#36. What's amazing to me? General Electric has a bigger budget for - special interest budget than all of the oil companies combined, and yet nobody says anything.

Glenn Beck

#37. I don't take PAC money. I don't take special interest money.

Jesse Ventura

#38. The reality is that the special interest groups that have lobbied against Free Choice Vouchers object to any measure that would empower employees to have a say in their health benefits because it begins to erode their power in the current health care system.

Ron Wyden

#39. Religion enjoys astonishing privileges in our societies, privileges denied to almost any other special interest group one can think of-and certainly denied to individuals

Richard Dawkins

#40. Every special interest is entitled to justice full, fair and complete ... but not one is entitled to a vote in Congress, to a voice on the bench or to representation in any public office.

Theodore Roosevelt

#41. The Citizens United ruling did not invent special-interest spending; it enables corporations and unions to advocate directly on behalf of a candidate rather than running more subtle 'issue ads.'

Nina Easton

#42. It is difficult for the common good to prevail against the intense concentration of those who have a special interest, especially if the decisions are made behind locked doors.

Jimmy Carter

#43. Social Security is a government program with a constituency made up of the old, the near old and those who hope or fear to grow old. After 215 years of trying, we have finally discovered a special interest that includes 100 percent of the population. Now we can vote ourselves rich.

P. J. O'Rourke

#44. I desire an special interest in your prayers that my faith fail not in the day of adversity.

John Hawley

#45. I went to school for marketing and advertising, so I have a special interest in good and funny commercials and why they work and why they're funny - which is one of the reasons I, like many people, like watching the Super Bowl, besides the game.

Kevin Nealon

#46. Advertising is simply a use of the right of the manufacture to present his case and to employ the same arts of appeal and persuasion accorded to the politician, the preacher, the lawyer, and to every other individual who has a special interest in something, whether a creed or a commodity.

Raymond Rubicam

#47. Special-interest magazines are dangerous places for writers to start out in because the writing quickly falls into a routine and people are likely to find themselves artistically exhausted when they want to work on something of their own.

Irwin Shaw

#48. I don't claim to have any special interest in natural history, but as a boy I was made aware of the annual fluctuations in the number of game animals and the need to adjust the cull to the size of the surplus population.

Prince Philip

#49. The bill's a textbook example of special interest pork barrel politics at work, and I have no choice but to veto it.

Ronald Reagan

#50. My good friend Walter Mondale is a good lapdog. He'll give them [special interest groups] everything they want. He'll lick every hand.

Ernest Hollings

#51. The best way to begin genuine bipartisanship to make America stronger is to work together on the real crises facing our country, not to manufacture an artificial crisis to serve a special interest agenda out of touch with the needs of Americans.

John F. Kerry

#52. The United Nations has come under the control of outlaw nations and self-serving special interest groups.

Ginny Brown-Waite

#53. Is Christianity just another special-interest group, clawing for political power? Or, even if Christians are acting as God's spokesmen, must Christians always conduct themselves politically as if Christianity were just another special-interest group? Do Christians conduct evangelism this way?.

Gary North

#54. We [women] are the majority of the population, majority of the electorate, majority of the workforce ... and yet we're still doing majority of family unpaid or low paid labor. And we live longer. Our stuff is not "special interest" stuff. Our stuff is the stuff of the future, of the whole.

Ai-jen Poo

#55. Politics need to stop treating women as a special-interest group.

Eva Longoria

#56. Christ is the head of the corpus mysticum, which includes all men from the beginning of the world to its end. He is not the president of a special-interest club.

Eric Voegelin

#57. Republicans support opening the floodgates to special interest money and suppressing the right to vote. It's just plain wrong.

Nancy Pelosi

#58. I strongly recommend that students with autism get involved in special interest clubs in some of the areas they naturally excel at. Being with people who share your interests makes socializing easier.

Temple Grandin

#59. The subject of Finnish poetry ought to have a special interest for the Japanese student, if only for the reason that Finnish poetry comes more closely in many respects to Japanese poetry than any other form of Western poetry.

Lafcadio Hearn

#60. This, by the way, is the welfare state in action: Its a whole bunch of special interest groups screwing consumers and taxpayers, and making them think they're really benefiting.

Murray Rothbard

#61. Career politicians do not have the courage to prioritize spending and say no to demanding special interest groups who do not reflect the best interests of the country.

Tom Coburn

#62. The U.S. Senate does not allow legislative provisions to be included in appropriations bills, for much the same reason that most Americans are concerned about earmarks: it creates a slippery slope by which lobbyists and special interest groups can sneak provisions into large, must-pass legislation.

Ron Wyden

#63. I'm not going to take any special interest money or any PAC money ... when I get to Washington I want to be the voice for the people of Connecticut and not owe special favors.

Linda McMahon

#64. I agree that special interest sections between Portugal and Indonesia can proceed without me being released.

Xanana Gusmao

#65. He has not shown the special interest in reading that we should like to see but he likes shop work. George H. W. Bush's parents on his Andover application

H.W. Brands

#66. Enough to using Texas as a political laboratory for testing far-right ideas. Enough to using Texas as a workshop for fattening the wallets of their special interest friends and supporters. And enough of politicians listening only to each other, rather than real Texans.

Wendy Davis

#67. Heads of state are actually prisoners of special interest groups.

Deepak Chopra

#68. If I am elected President, I will end the special interest monopoly in Washington, D.C.

Donald Trump

#69. I hate how spiritual formation gets positioned as an optional pursuit for a small special interest group within the church.

John Ortberg

#70. In the community, in the African-American community, one person ought to say something, and that is the minister. The minister is paid by the people. He doesn't work for a big company. He doesn't represent a particular special interest.

Clementa C. Pinckney

#71. Who is in charge? Is it taxpayers or is it the special interest groups?

Scott Walker

#72. Television news is now entertainment, and the stories are being written by the people that have a special interest in them.

James Taylor

#73. Blood is the substance that allows any living thing to exist, but blood is blood. I have heard of people drinking each other's blood. They cut each other, and they drink it and it's supposed to be a euphoric feeling. But, blood has no special interest for me.

Richard Ramirez

#74. Politicians will pander to special-interest groups eager to gain at the public expense.

Donald J. Boudreaux

#75. I think growing up in a small town is a good foundation for anyone who decides to enter politics. You get to know people as individuals, not as blocs or members of special interest groups.

Ronald Reagan

#76. I have taken special interest in these accounts [of UFOs].. I think there may be substance to some of these reports ... I think we owe it to the people to establish credibility regarding UFOs and to produce the greatest possible enlightenment on this subject.

Gerald R. Ford

#77. Good morning, Meroe,' I said, dusting uselessly at my tracksuit pants. 'Might I interest you in today's special, pre-floured kitten?

Kerry Greenwood

#78. We have weakened the parties and strengthened all the special interests.

Mark Shields

#79. Why is it that we all say we hate our hypocritical politicians being controlled by special interests groups, and every election...we vote them in again.

Colleen Hitchcock

#80. Rise in great might to fulfill your special specific mission.

Lailah Gifty Akita

#81. Not only must Americans admire Israel, there can be no doubt that we have an interest in, and special responsibility for, that valiant nation.

George Ball

#82. Until you actually join this government you say that you defend and join it on the same basis as any other citizen then I have every intention of regarding you as I would any other lobbyist for any other interest group demanding special privileges for its members.

Fyor Rodan

Walter Jon Williams

#83. Everybody says that they're against the special interests. I'm the only one the special interests don't give any money to.

John McCain

#84. Get the big point of your advertisement into your headline. Use your headline as a hook to reach out and catch the special group of people you are trying to interest.

John Caples

#85. The smaller the unit of government and the more restricted the functions assigned government, the less likely it is that its actions will reflect special interests rather than the general interest.

Milton Friedman

#86. Journalism has always existed in two different realities ... the economic marketplace and [the] special institution to serve the public interest. The traditional balance between those two has become destabilized. Economic reality has taken over.

Joan Konner

#87. That's why we created Flipboard as a social magazine meant for an iPad, meant for a large touch-screen device. That idea of content presented beautifully, oriented around communities and special topics of interest, is really powerful.

Mike McCue

#88. We pay a price when special interests win out over the collective national interest.

Chris Christie

#89. I suspect everybody has a degree of psychic ability, just as a everybody has a degree of athletic or artistic ability. Some people have special gifts; other people have a particular interest that leads them to develop their abilities. But the phenomenon itself is ordinary and widespread.

Michael Crichton

#90. We have the ability (under special circumstances) to transcend self-interest and lose ourselves (temporarily and ecstatically) in something larger than ourselves. I called this ability the hive switch.

Jonathan Haidt