[Rhodes22-list] Politics - Harry Truman Style

[Brad Haslett]

Great story and all true.  The first President to cash out big time on
the Oval Office was Gerald Ford.  William Jefferson Clinton made him
look like a rank amateur in comparison.

Brad

On Tue, Oct 21, 2008 at 1:21 PM,  <pdgrand at nospam.wmis.net> wrote:
>
> No one could have said it better.....
>   'It doesn't matter how big a ranch ya' own, or how many cows ya' brand,
> the size of your funeral is still gonna depend on the weather.'
> Harry Truman
>   ...............................................
>   After President Truman retired from office in 1952, he was left with an
> income consisting only of a U.S.Army pension, reported to have been
> just $13,507.72 a year.  Congress, noting that he was paying for his
> own stamps and  personally licking them, granted him an 'allowance'
> and, later, a retroactive pension of $25,000 per year.  When offered
> corporate positions at large
> salaries, he declined, stating, 'You don't want me.  You want the Office
> of the President, and that doesn't belong to me.  It belongs to the
> American people and it's not for sale.'
>   Even later, on May 6, 1971, when Congress was preparing to award him
> the Medal of Honor on his 87th birthday, he refused to accept it,
> writing, 'I don't consider that I have done anything which should be
> the reason for any award,  Congressional or otherwise.'
>   We now see that other past presidents have found a new level of success
> in cashing in on the presidency, resulting in untold wealth. Today,
> many in Congress also have found a way to become quite wealthy while
> enjoying the fruits of their offices.  Obviously, political offices are
> now for sale.
>   Good ol' Harry Truman might well have been correct when he observed,
> 'My choice early in life was to be either a piano player in a
> whorehouse or a politician.  And to tell the truth, there's hardly any
> difference.  I, for one, believe the piano player to be much more
> honorable than current politicians.'
>
>
>
>
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