Senator Kenneth McKellar Quotes in Public Enemies (2009)

[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?