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Politicians are usually the first to forget that if you assume someone else is acting in bad faith, they will do the same to you. Questioning motives poisons the well.

I understand that the nature of politics sometimes involves fending off frivolous, anonymous allegations.

If you tell the truth you get into trouble, and that's why politicians are extremely dull.

Never ascribe to an opponent motives meaner than your own.

That statement was not addressed to the authors of political statements. I said that I deplore attempts to misinform the public and to /trigger/ political intervention. And there were such attempts.

To be fair, lying is part and parcel of public life. Every politician has lied about something because they are owned by the special interest groups that finance their elections.

One of the reasons people hate politics is that truth is rarely a politician's objective. Election and power are.

Politicians are masters of the art of deception.

You have to steer a course between not appalling people, but at the same time not misleading them.