Quote of the Day (Richard Nixon)

"I have earned every cent. And in all of my years in public life I have never obstructed justice. People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook.”—Richard Nixon to 400 Associated Press managing editors, November 17, 1973

(By the time Nixon said this, many people were already inclined to guffaw. Within four months, others would join them, as the White House announced that the President would pay $432,787.13 in back taxes plus interest. I must admit to being surprised that this statement has not yet made Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations—Nixon’s hypocrisy, here at its rankest, would almost guarantee a place in that reference, because it is so memorable.)