Honest Politicians?

No, it's not an oxymoron. We did a web search to learn who said, "An honest politician is one who stays bought". The search produced lots of hits where folks used the quote, though most claimed to not know who said it. Glenn always thought it was Will Rogers, who did get a few hits. A larger hit-getter was Robert Heinlien's fictional character Lazarus Long, also a very credible source though many years later than Rogers.

A potential source that surprised us was Lincoln's Secretary of War, Simon Cameron. It was said of him that the only thing he would not steal was a red-hot stove. Apparently a crook himself (censured by Congress no less), he was appalled by politicians who would take a bribe from one crook and then turn around and take another bribe from an opposing crook. We're looking into this and will update this page when we have anything to report. It might be that the quote has been around for as long as there have been politicians.

For the record, Glenn Thomas does not claim to be an honest politician by this standard.