Gordon Smith Quotes

Gordon Smith shares blunt, earnest commentary on politics and policy, useful for clear-minded readers.

36 quotes

1. I, for one, am at the end of my rope when it comes to supporting a policy that has our soldiers patrolling the same streets in the same way, being blown up by the same bombs day after day. That is absurd. It may even be criminal . I cannot support that anymore . I believe we need to figure out how to fight the war on terror and to do it right. So either we clear and hold and build, or let's go home. [1]

2. As a Republican, I voted with President Clinton consistently in our efforts to bail out our European friends in Kosovo to stop genocide. I am proud of those votes. I am proud of President Clinton for that.

3. From the American retelling of Romeo and Juliet in West Side Story to the Japanese adaptation of King Lear in Ran, Shakespeare's cultural influence is virtually limitless.

4. I believe that the Government's first duty is to defend its citizens, to defend them against the harms that come out of hate.

5. I do not know that there is a more certain sound than Senator Kennedy. I cannot imagine a more uncertain sound than Senator Kerry.

6. I have concluded that the U.N. can do a few things well.

7. Multipolarity is not a policy goal, it's a recipe for disaster.

8. Newspapers across the country and the world have published cartoons that have gone beyond reasonable differences of opinion and expanded into the realm of anti-Semitism.

9. The only way to ensure that our promise to provide every opportunity for students with disabilities, and help them achieve their full potential, is to give our schools the dollars they need.

10. We have a rare and perhaps small window of opportunity to set partisan differences aside, and attempt to achieve what many in recent years have felt was unreachable - greater retirement security for ourselves and our children.

11. We have some control over when we retire. However, we have very little control over how long we will live.

12. We cannot have tomorrow's miracles if we tie scientists' hands with yesterday's rules.

13. I wish there were a healthier Republican Party in the state of Oregon.

14. My neighbor is now an 18-wheeler who comes by here 1,000 times a day.

15. My mother always said, 'The best way to ruin a story is to tell the other side.'

16. On issues carrying as much emotional freight as race - and there aren't many - a U.S. senator needs to speak with care and consistency. Otherwise, he could find people speaking at his own retirement tribute.

17. The American people are being victimized more than any free market would warrant.

18. Lawmakers have good reason to want a healthy broadcast industry. Broadcast TV stations provide more than 186,000 jobs on an annual basis, which directly generate more than $30 billion in economic activity.

19. In my day, the players used to work their socks off. It's all changed now, obviously.

20. Local television is still the No. 1 source for news and part of the family.

21. Broadcasting's best days lie ahead as both an engine of local economies and as an integral part of tomorrow's technological world.

22. The people who depend on an antenna are often those who are underprivileged - the elderly and the disadvantaged who can't afford a $200-a-month cable bill.

23. Radio continues to be the very best advertising music performers have. No one who ever grabbed a Grammy got there without radio.

24. A lot of things people see as innovative are faddish and fleeting, and I'm simply telling you, staying power like broadcasting has is more important in the end than the latest app you can download.

25. Mitt Romney has a proven job creation record as governor and in the private sector.

26. For years, broadcasters didn't get a nickel out of retransmission consent. But broadcast content is what the cable industry was selling to customers.

27. I never thought Oregon would elect to the U.S. Senate a Mormon, but it did.

28. If policymakers are serious about avoiding a society of TV 'haves and have-nots,' they should refrain from policies that favor pay-TV operators over the providers of our nation's only free and local communications system: over-the-air broadcasting.

29. We take our kids for physical vaccinations, dental exams, eye checkups. When do we think to take our - our son or daughter for a mental health checkup?

30. Pay-TV companies that built their businesses on the backs of local and network broadcast signals should pay a fair price for access to that high-value programming.

31. Business deals are successfully negotiated every day throughout America. The common thread is a mutual desire to reach an accord. And the media business is no different.

32. History shows that pay-TV subscribers flee in droves to alternative providers when there is even a rare service disruption - demonstrating a quantifiable value for 'must-have' broadcast programming.

33. When there's an emergency weather situation, the local broadcaster is the source of information that often makes the difference between life and death.

34. I think I have over 60 apps on my iPhone. I use six.

35. “Spirits exist in a higher state of emotional awareness and that's why they seem much wiser than they were in their time in this life.”

36. “I often think a person’s consciousness can grow more from gaining an insight into animals’ true essence than animals’ consciousness can grow from spending time with humans.”