You can find pretty much the whole outfit over in my headquarters, Washington Hall.
The fact is that a reformer can't last in politics.

He can make a show for a while, but he always comes down like a rocket.

Politics is as much a regular business as the grocery or the dry-goods or the drug business.
You've got to be trained up to it or you're sure to fail.

Suppose a man who knew nothing about the grocery trade suddenly went into the business and tried to conduct it according to his own ideas.

Wouldn't he make a mess of it?
He might make a splurge for a while, as long as his money lasted, but his store would soon be empty.