The Best of Notable Quotables; December 20, 1993

Vol. Six; No. 26


Media Hero Award



“What do you do for an encore after ending the Cold War and reversing the arms race? How about saving the planet? That’s the latest assignment for Mikhail Gorbachev, having assumed the presidency of the International Green Cross, a new environmental organization....”

–  Time’s “The Week” section, May 3.


Runners-up:


“She restores a tradition of excellence at the Department of Health and Human Services. That agency has been headed by some of America’s truly great human beings: Joe Califano, Pat Harris, and now Donna Shalala. She is an academic who is connected with the real needs of people. When it comes to being an effective advocate for those who have no voice, she has few equals, perhaps only one – the other half of the dynamic duo here in Washington, that is the duo of Donna Shalala and Hillary Rodham Clinton.”

– ABC health reporter George Strait introducing Shalala to the National Minority AIDS Council on C-SPAN, Apr. 22.

“In that instant, [Janet] Reno, who had already pretty much captivated Washington with one gutsy performance after another, achieved full-fledged folk-hero status....She was cheered on both sides of the aisle in Congress and in her own Justice Department, where a succession of 25-watt, responsibility-ducking Attorneys General had left morale lower than – well, lower than an alligator’s belly.”

Time contributing editor and former Washington Bureau Chief Stanley Cloud, May 10.

“Just last night on television I saw your opponent for Governor complaining about your record, saying how you had raised taxes, how it had cost 300,000 jobs. Are you afraid your politically courageous moves are in fact going to cost you the election?”

Today co-host Katie Couric to N.J. Gov. Jim Florio, May 24.