Monday Movies Post

I've been negligent in doing these regularly, and I don't have a new one really ready to go, so I'm going to do a cheat...a list of ten of my favorite political characters.  Lots of new readers here (welcome!  thanks for stopping by -- stick around and enjoy the fun!), so I'll also, in the cases in which I've discussed the movie or show, include a link back to my old post...I'll also give each of them a quotation, because if you haven't said anything memorable, you're probably not really one of my favorite political characters.  In no particular order:

1. Sir Humphrey Appleby (Nigel Hawthorne -- I'm going to list the actors, because all of these are wonderful performances):

Suppression is the instrument of totalitarian dictatorship, we don't talk of that sort of thing in a free country. We simply take a democratic decision not to publish it.

2. Livia (Sian Phillips):

They won't allow me in [the Senate] because I am a woman, and they won't allow you in because you're a fool. That's strange, when you come to think of it, because it's filled with nothing but old women and fools. 

3. Skeeters (or: The Politician; William Demerest):

If it wasn't for graft, you'd get a very low type of people in politics.  Men without ambition.  Jellyfish!

4. C.J. Cregg (Allison Janney):

And don't be concerned with my exposure. I'm not your daughter. I'm the White House Press Secretary. 

(Yeah, it's not a great quote...really, this one is about 95% the actress, I think, but she's good enough to include).

5. King Henry V (pick one: Branagh? Sure):

We must bear all. O hard condition,
Twin-born with greatness, subject to the breath
Of every fool, whose sense no more can feel
But his own wringing!

6. President Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell):

Though in war, you only get killed once. In politics it can happen over and over. 

7. Boss James W. Gettys (Ray Collins):

I am not a gentleman. I don't even know what a gentleman is.  

8. Fred, The Mayor (Clarence Kolb):

The blasted nimrod... fishing, duck shooting! A guy who's done nothing for the last forty years but play pinochle gets elected governor and right away he thinks he's a Tarzan! 

9. Bill "The Butcher" Cutting (Daniel Day-Lewis):

That, my friends, is the minority vote. 

10. Senator Jay Billington Bulworth (Warren Beatty):

My guys are not stupid. They always put the big Jews on my schedule. You're mostly Jews, right? Three out of four of you?  [brandishes speech]
I bet Murphy put something bad about Farrakhan in here for you! 

And a bonus: The Intendant (Nana Visitor):

I could never make them understand, violence is a precision instrument. It's a scalpel, not a club.