The Best of Notable Quotables; December 28, 1998

Hallucinating Hillary Award (for Promoting the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy)

“Where does Lewinsky fit into this conspiracy theory? Is she victimizing the President or is she too a victim?”

– Bryant Gumbel to James Carville, January 28 Public Eye on CBS. [66 points]

Runners-up:

“Hillary Clinton attacked her husband’s attackers, saying a lot of the criticism comes down to an anti-Arkansas bias. Well, chief among his critics, it can fairly be said, is Kenneth Starr. And the Starr Wars, it can also fairly be said, targeted Arkansas, home of the Whitewater affair and the investigation that now, four years later, seems to be winding up with the Lewinsky affair. From the beginning, Mr. Starr’s tactics and motives have come under fire, especially the way he went after low level targets..."

– Morley Safer introducing a re-run of a story on Ken Starr’s tactics, August 16 60 Minutes. [52]
 
“On another front, there could be trouble for the Ken Starr Whitewater investigation. Reports continue to surface that this key witness for the prosecution, David Hale, may have been secretly bankrolled by political activists widely regarded as Clinton opponents, people that Clinton supporters call Republican haters from the far right.”

– Dan Rather, April 2 CBS Evening News. [43]
 
“Hillary Clinton linked Starr to a conspiracy that has even suggested the President was involved in the murder of a former campaign worker....It is Starr’s past and continuing connections with very conservative organizations and causes that have brought him into the cross hairs of the First Family. As their evidence they point to his very appointment as independent counsel by a three judge panel headed by Judge David Sentelle, who is a close ally of ultraconservative North Carolina Senators Jesse Helms and Lauch Faircloth....”

– Correspondent Phil Jones on the CBS Evening News, January 27. [40]
 
“If there is a ‘vast right-wing conspiracy’ at work in America, the man at its center likely is Richard Mellon Scaife, the 65-year-old reclusive Pittsburgh billionaire whose money has funded both mainstream conservative think tanks and underground attack campaigns against President Clinton.... Scaife's money also has poured into the rabidly anti-Clinton American Spectator magazine. Editor R. Emmett Tyrell [sic] Jr. relentlessly derided the new President in 1993, a vilification campaign that won Scaife’s support.”

– Los Angeles Times reporter David Savage, April 17. [38]
 

Featured Posts

Bozell Slams Hillary’s Shills in Media: ‘They Are Covering for’ Her

Get the Latest News From CNSNews

Get the Latest Media Analysis on NewsBusters