Leadership Quote by John N. Mitchell

Mitchell's line has the blunt, backroom efficiency of a man who spent his career treating politics as a contact sport: you don't get results by posturing away from the source. "Cherries" are a sly choice. Cherry-picking is already a political sin, the cheap trick of selecting only the evidence that flatters your case. Mitchell flips it into a practical admonition: even if you're trying to pick and choose, you still have to face the tree. Power, facts, and consequences require proximity. You can't curate reality from a safe angle.

The subtext is almost combative. It's aimed at people who want the fruit of influence without the discomfort of engagement: critics who refuse meetings, lawmakers who grandstand instead of negotiate, bureaucrats who hide behind process, or partisans who argue from a distance. "Back to the tree" implies denial and cowardice as much as inefficiency. Turn around, confront the thing you're pretending isn't there.

Mitchell's context matters. As Nixon's Attorney General and later a central figure orbiting Watergate, he came to symbolize a governing style that prized loyalty, message discipline, and hard-nosed management over transparency. Read through that lens, the quote doubles as self-justification: real operators get close, get their hands dirty, and accept the mess. The irony, of course, is that turning toward the tree can also mean stepping deeper into it - into complicity. It's a neat little proverb that can sell responsibility or excuse ruthlessness, depending on who's holding the basket.