Quotes from Robert Scheer

I've been with the paper for almost 30 years.

What passes for investigative journalism is finding somebody with their pants down - literally or otherwise.

And the big issue here, I think, is that the publisher took over the editorial pages, a guy named Jeff Johnson. He's an accountant from Chicago, doesn't know anything about what newspapers are supposed to be about, and he made a decision to get rid of the column.

Much of what candidates have to do is raise money and appeal to constituencies or interest groups that can provide that money.

Democrats can give us wars, you know? Democrats can play the false patriotism card.

We've had the trivialization of our politics going on ever since we had electronic media.

They know that the column resonates in the community. They know that people like it, and yet they don't have room for one column once week that consistently got it right.

For instance, Clinton who was unquestionably the smartest of the bunch I talked to - both the ones who made it and didn't. He had a great interest in policy.

What Clinton severed with his welfare reform was the obligation of the federal government to step in when the states failed and to monitor these programs.

The issue I highlight in the book is welfare reform.

For example, I spent a lot of time with Reagan, both before he ran for governor and when he was running for president. As a print reporter without the cameras, I was able to really test the quality of their minds and their knowledge base.

For example, I spent a lot of time with Reagan, both before he ran for governor and when he was running for president. As a print reporter without the cameras, I was able to really test the quality of their minds and their knowledge base.

It's not easy to pull off the Big Lie and George Bush has failed.

The publisher has told - you know, if these editors, Andres Martinez and Nick Goldberg, were the least bit honest about this, they would tell you the publisher has told them he wants the editorial page to be conservative.

The paper nominated me 12 or 13 times for the Pulitzer Prize.

I talked to Reagan for about six hours all told. and Reagan was willing to go along with it. He didn't look at his watch, and he didn't allow his campaign aides to cut it off.

Life is a horror for the Korean people. And I think isolating them further is going to make life more miserable.

That means presenting the issues in certain ways that will appeal to those people and then becoming a prisoner of your own language and thought process. That has always happened - it's just been intensified.

I was able to do something that people cant do these days, which is to have quality time with the guys who were trying to be president and a number of them who got the job.

Eisenhower was a pretty peace-oriented president. Truman was a pretty hawkish. I would argue, if we had more time, I would argue Truman had a lot to do with getting the Cold War going.

The decision came from the publisher. It certainly was cleared by Chicago. And then they come out with these fine sounding words about relation to readers and their obligation. It has nothing to do with that.

When Howard Dean started saying some honest things, they hung him.

I was a finalist for the Pulitzer as a reporter.

And new people come in, and it doesn't go along with their politics, and they fire me, end the column, silence a voice in Los Angeles. They can't silence it nationally, but they are able to do it there.