Quotes About Communication

anger in a leader rarely produces good results.

A brother offended is harder to win than a strong city, and contentions are like the bars of a castle" (Prov. 18:19 NKJV).

Washington is paralyzed by extreme political rhetoric that creates powerful sound bites but poor policy.

What passes for real debate in Washington often seems more like an echo chamber, with politicians talking at politicians.

I always try to keep my constituents as up-to-date as possible with what's going on here in Washington.

Sometimes we pay too much attention in Washington to public relations, as opposed to the substance.

Of course people think Washington is arrogant. It is.

The past two decades revolutionized the way we access information. You and I can have our questions answered with the click of a mouse at any time of day. If America, both corporation and citizen alike, can use these services to solve problems, why can't Washington?

I think the American people deserve somebody telling them what is really happening in Washington.

One thing I will commit to the people of Ohio is, when I'm a U.S. senator and there's issues being debated in Washington, when I'm a U.S. senator they'll know exactly what my position is.

What makes us feel pessimistic about the world, ultimately, is the way the media encourage us to believe that our fate hangs on the every move of the promise-breaking, terminally disappointing Teflon liars in Washington.

Ever since Woodward and Bernstein, there's sort of been an epidemic of confidential sources in Washington, in particular where people will actually - when you call them up on the phone, they'll say, 'This is off the record,' or, 'This is on background,' or they don't even wait for you to say anything.

I've got about 27 gigs right now. I've got radio, I've got television, I've got The Washington Post.

'The Washington Post' doesn't have to report on what I post on Twitter. CNN doesn't have to report on what I post on Twitter. All kinds of media outlets - they don't have to report on anything that I post on Twitter. Just like they don't have to report on all kinds of other things that other people post on Twitter.

I have gone on the air and announced my telephone number at the Washington Post. I go into the night, talking to people, looking for things. The great dreaded thing every reporter lives with is what you don't know. The source you didn't go to. The phone call you didn't return.

What I did was sit down with the Washington State officials, with the historic preservation people, with the tribe, the local community, the port of Port Angeles, and we worked this thing out, and we protected the tribe's interest.

People usually spend the first two months playing themselves up, not really being themselves. You waste those two months - and then they tell you, 'You're not who I was dating the first month!'

The first thing you learn when you're blogging is that people are one click away from leaving you. So you've got to get to the point, you can't waste people's time, you've got to give them some value for their limited attention span.

The waste of capital, in proportion to the total capital, in this country between 1800 and 1850, in the attempts which were made to establish means of communication and transportation, was enormous.

If you're the village blacksmith and a model T comes along, you better become a mechanic. People's lives are better when they get news online versus having to wait for the morning paper. It's a lot more efficient, a lot more real time, a lot less waste.

Unfortunately, Lifeline, known in some circles as the 'Obamaphone' program, is plagued by waste, fraud, and abuse.

It's never been difficult for me to say no. I have never given excuses like I don't have dates. I have never over-quoted to avoid a project. I simply say that while the script might be good, I can't connect with it. My strategy is that while I wouldn't want anyone to waste my time, I shouldn't be doing that, either, with others.

When topics are complex and meaty, don't create a never-ending email thread. It's amazing how much time people waste composing and reading carefully-worded essays, when a 5 minute in-person chat would resolve the whole thing.

Real men don't listen. I think you can waste a lot of valuable time listening to what people are saying to you and, let's face it, it's rarely interesting or important.