Quote of the Day: Everybody Does Not Do It

"I must say regretfully that ... what I have heard is a statement I can only describe as arrogant, unrepentant, and a smear on this institution.  Everybody does not do it.  Members of this body attempt, by word and deed, publicly and privately, to take great care with their personal conduct as it might be perceived by the American people.  That is equally true for Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives.  I have found that to be the only unifying thread in this body.  For the senator from California to rise and give a speech on this floor, after accepting this admonition, this serious reprimand ... and to blame it on campaign finance and everybody does it, and you should all be in fear of your lives from the ethics committee, is poppycock.  I repeat, regretfully, that the statement is arrogant, it is unrepentant; it is unworthy of the senior senator from California."

Senator Warren Rudman about Senator Alan Cranston after the latter was reprimanded by the Senate in the Keating Five matter (1991), quoted in Robert S. Bennett, In the Ring: The Trials of a Washington Lawyer (Crown, 2008)