The Best of Notable Quotables; December 28, 1998
Table of Contents:
- The Best of Notable Quotables; December 28, 1998
- Presidential Kneepad Award
- Wired Wicked Witch
- Hallucinating Hillary
- Corporal Cueball Carville
- Steve Brill Media Masochism
- Media McCarthyism
- Everybody But Us Shut Up Award
- Starr Behind Bars
- Good Morning Morons
- Move over Buddy Award
- Damn Conservatives
- Politics of Meaninglessness
- Carve Clinton into Mt. Rushmore
- Too Late For Our Judging
- Quote of the Year
- 1998 Award Judges
The Everybody But Us Shut Up Award (for Promoting Campaign Finance Reform)
“For
those of us who worship the constitutional guarantee of free press and
speech, the spectacle of political hustlers like Sen. Mitch McConnell
(R-Ky.) using the First Amendment to justify legalized bribery is
offensive.”
– Wall Street Journal Executive Washington Editor Al Hunt, March 12 column. [82 points]
Runners-up:
“Republicans
kill the bill to clean up sleazy political fundraising. The business of
dirty campaign money will stay business as usual....Good evening.
Legislation to reform shady big money campaign fundraising is dead in
Congress. Republican opponents in the Senate killed it today. It was the
latest in a long-running attempt to toughen loose laws that shield
hidden donors with loose wallets and deep pockets. As CBS’s Bob
Schieffer reports, when it came to the crunch today on campaign finance
reform, it was all talk and no action.”
– Dan Rather, February 26 CBS
Evening News. [71]
“It was a bill that was doomed to die. The
last time you heard people so eager to claim responsibility for
something like this, they were terrorists.”
– NBC reporter Gwen Ifill,
February 27 Washington Week in Review on PBS. [49]
“The Senate
has effectively killed political campaign finance reform for the
foreseeable future, which means that even though a majority of Senators
declared themselves in favor of trying to change the way politicians
raise and spend money, there were not enough votes to end a Republican
filibuster. Together the Senate and the House of Representatives spent
more than $9 million dollars to hold more than 30 days of hearings on
how to change the rules, and even though so many Americans believe that
money is more important to the process than their vote – which is not a
pretty picture – and though many, many politicians believe the system
is flawed, they will not be fixing it, just yet.”
– ABC News anchor
Peter Jennings, February 26 World News Tonight. [27]
