Public Enemies (2009)

Ed Bruce: Senator McKellar

Quotes 

• [Hoover is at a Senate Appropriation Committee hearing] 

  Senator Kenneth McKellar : Why do we need this?

  J. Edgar Hoover : Because criminals flee in fast automobiles across state lines, thereby defeating local jurisdiction because there is no federal police force to stop them.

  Senator Kenneth McKellar : By my tally, your bureau wants to spend more taxpayer's dollars catching crooks, than what the crooks you catch stole in the first place.

  J. Edgar Hoover : Well that's ridiculous. The Bureau has apprehended kidnappers and bank robbers who have stolen up to and in excess of...

  Senator Kenneth McKellar : Really?

  [Hoover stops midsentence] 

  Senator Kenneth McKellar : How many have you apprehended?

  J. Edgar Hoover : We have arrested and arraigned 213 wanted felons.

  Senator Kenneth McKellar : No, I mean *you*, Director Hoover.

  J. Edgar Hoover : Well, as Director, I administer.

  Senator Kenneth McKellar : How many have you arrested, personally?

  [long pause as Hoover stares at McKellar] 

  J. Edgar Hoover : I have never arrested anybody.

  [Other men in the chamber gasp in shock] 

  Senator Kenneth McKellar : You've never arrested anybody?

  J. Edgar Hoover : Well of course not. I'm an administrator...

  Senator Kenneth McKellar : With no field experience. You are shockingly unqualified, aren't you, sir? You have never personally conducted a criminal investigation in the field in your life. I think you're a front. I think your prowess as a lawman is a myth, created from the hoopla of headlines by Mr. Suydam, your publicist there. Crimebuster? G-Man? You're setting yourself up as a Czar? That's running wild in my estimation.

  J. Edgar Hoover : A *crime* is what runs wild...

  Senator Kenneth McKellar : If this country requires a bureau such as yours, I question whether you are the person fit to run it.

  J. Edgar Hoover : [getting angry]  Well I will not be judged by a kangaroo court of venal politicians...

  Senator Kenneth McKellar : Your appropriation increase is denied.

  [taps his gavel, signifying the end of the session; Hoover and his aides get up and leave] 

  J. Edgar Hoover : Feed the following to Walter Winchell: "McKellar is a Neanderthal, and he is on a personal vendetta to destroy me." We will not contest him in his committee. We need to fight him on the front page. Where's John Dillinger?