Notable Quotables - 03/22/1999

China: Just Another Witch Hunt


"I'm suspicious of the Republicans here. I think they're trying to make some political hay. It feels like 'Who lost China?' and a lot of witch hunts of the past where they see a chance to make some political capital by us not being tough enough. I don't think that's true."
- Evan Thomas, Newsweek's Assistant Managing Editor, March 13 Inside Washington.

"There are some people who say, Look, why shouldn't I believe that the Democrats and Bill Clinton have whipped the Republicans soundly on domestic policy so now they've decided they'll just take him on on foreign policy?"
- Bob Schieffer to Sen. John McCain, March 14 Face the Nation.

"There's a lot of concern now in this China issue, but the fact is China has 24 long-range nuclear missiles that could hit the United States. Russia 7,000. Yet the whole arms control process with Russia over START has collapsed. That was something started by Republicans. I don't hear anything coming out of Republicans complaining about that, wanting to drive that agenda. What's happened? When I listen to the Republicans in Congress on foreign policy, there's such an 'I'm stupid and proud of it' attitude."
- New York Times columnist and former reporter Tom Friedman to McCain, March 14 Face the Nation.

 

Punt Juanita, Attack Star Wars


"Do you expect a breakthrough on Kosovo and especially in view of the policy seems to be attacking or threatening Serbia and then retreating, it's constant. And my other question is how can you justify chipping away at the ABM treaty which helped keep the peace during the Cold War and pour billions and billions into a Star Wars defense against the possibility that starving North Korea may fire a missile at us?"
- UPI's Helen Thomas to President Clinton in one of three questions from U.S. reporters, none of which touched on Juanita Broaddrick, March 5 joint press conference

 

First Woman (Raping) President?


"We were talking about - speaking for all women, if I may, Toni Morrison wrote in The New Yorker that Clinton was our first 'black President,' and I think, in a way, Clinton may be our first 'woman President.' And I think that may be one of the reasons why women identify, because he does have a lot of feminine qualities about him: the softness, the sensitivity, the vulnerability, that kind of thing."
- The Washington Post's Sally Quinn on Larry King Live, Mar. 10.

 

Blackmun Grew In Office Into Liberal Champion of the Poor


"Beyond Roe, Blackmun's career on the court was marked by a shift from conservative to liberal positions fueled by a frank sympathy for the poor and disenfranchised."
- ABC's Terry Moran on the passing of retired Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun, March 4 World News Tonight.

Question: "Blackmun was supposed to be a conservative, and he became one of the most liberal. Why?"
Alain Sanders of Time magazine: "Essentially, he learned and grew as he went along. He was also befriended by the Court's master politician, Justice Brennan, who happened to be the court's leading liberal. Certainly Brennan sounded convincing to Blackmun. But Blackmun always respected the little guy. And that respect led him to champion the disadvantaged against the huge power of government."
- March 4 online chat hosted by Yahoo! and CourtTV.

 

Stephanopoulos: From Hero to "Creepy Linda Tripp Type"


"A lot of people, George, think that this is just kinda creepy, that you've done this. They see you as a turncoat, a Linda Tripp type, if you will, who sort of ingratiated himself with the people inside the White House. They made you who you became and now all of a sudden, you're telling, you're airing all the dirty laundry and some people just think that's sorta gross."

"But aren't some situations off limits? I mean, you talk very candidly about the President's relationship with Mrs. Clinton. You had entree to situations that most people wouldn't. I mean you were sitting there - or standing there - once when the President was in his boxer shorts and Hillary came in and they kissed and you witnessed conversations. It seems to me that, I mean, is nothing sacred?"
- Katie Couric's first two questions to George Stephanopoulos, author of All Too Human, March 12 Today.

"I thought I'd start using George's book as a peg. Remember during the Ken Starr squabble, the Secret Service said we're going to invoke something called protective privilege, meaning that if Presidents thought that these agents were going to be talking after their term of service, they would never say anything in their presence. Well why doesn't that apply more and more to White House aides?"
- Brian Williams to liberal Democratic historian Doris Kearns Goodwin on MSNBC's News with Brian Williams, March 12.

 

Judas Tripp?


"Total loser. She will go down as some kind of tabloid-era Judas. And yeah, sure she warned her about the blue dress and that was helpful, but her idea that somehow she was looking out for Monica's interests is just a lie. It's clear throughout the history of this thing that she was out to do Monica harm and for her own interests."
- Newsweek's Jonathan Alter on winners and losers of the week, March 5 Upfront Tonight on CNBC.

 

"Utterly Un-American" Starr


"How loyal was she in the end? She went and talked to Ken Starr. She could have refused that, I suppose, or last night, she could have just gone full bore against Ken Starr, which I wish somebody would do. I think the notion that now she can't say everything she wants to is just utterly un-American."
- Washington Post reporter David Maraniss complaining about Monica Lewinsky on MSNBC's Hockenberry, March 4.

U.S. News & World Report Editorial Director Harold Evans: "One thing which surprises me so far in the reaction: Why isn't there more concern about the fact that Kenneth Starr did not allow her to speak about what happened. Why is he holding this woman in terror? Why?"
Lucianne Goldberg: "She's not terrified."
Evans: "She's terrified. She said she was terrified. I saw it....But she did say she was frightened and it is fact that Kenneth Starr would not let her talk about what happened. Why not? What is being held back? Why is he is so frightened? What does he got to hide? Seriously."
- Exchange on MSNBC's Hockenberry, March 3.

 

Rivera the Hater


"Dumped by the President, betrayed by the treacherous Tripp, and raped by the sanctimonious Starr and the fellow you saw in the brief flash there, Jackie 'The Thug' Bennett."
- Geraldo on Monica Lewinsky, March 4 Upfront Tonight.

"[Susan McDougal] has been hounded for 15 years by investigators and for the last five by the investigative terrorist, Ken Starr."
- Rivera, March 8 Rivera Live.

"Dante in the Inferno, Andrew [Morton], has as you know sinners more and more evil progressively as you get lower down. In your pantheon who is the worst? Is it Ken Starr, is it Linda Tripp, is it Lucianne Goldberg? I mean how do you rate them for relative evil?"
- Rivera to the author of Monica's Story, March 10 Rivera Live.

 

Larry King's Wacko Patrol


"So it was not the, as has been termed, the wacko element? The far right or those who are conspicuously anti-Clinton who were pressuring her?" CNN's Larry King to Juanita Broaddrick's son after he said she only came forward to correct misleading stories, March 8.

"The term wacko right-winger is redundant. For example, they're the only people who don't like being called compassionate. Someone remarked that many now defend the tobacco industry because its products kill people early, saving us dollars in having to care for aged people."
- "Larry King's People" item in USA Today, March 8.

 

The Far Right Hates Compassion


"...a compassionate conservative. The term has drawn fire from the far right, but Bush is courting the middle of America."
- Tom Brokaw on George W. Bush, March 2 NBC Nightly News.

 

Wow: Prisoners Up, Crime Down


"According to a new study by the Justice Department, the number of U.S. residents behind bars has doubled in just a dozen years. Last year it increased more than four percent. As of mid-1998, one in every 150 Americans was incarcerated. All this while crime rates have fallen. The reason for the seeming contradiction is that prisons are feeling the effects of get-tough-on-crime policies, like truth-in-sentencing initiatives designed to make inmates serve more of their terms."
- ABCs Jim Sciutto, March 15 Good Morning America.

 

Crusading for Hillary for Senate


"She emerged on health care, only to beat a very bruised retreat. She clearly hated being thought of as just Bill Clinton's wife. But ironically, it would take his scandals, finally, to free her. Finally, last November 1998, Hillary Clinton showed the world what she could do on the campaign trail without him. Political mastery, every bit as dazzling as his, the thoughtful speech, unapologetically strong, emboldening Democrats, electing Senators. So her friends say she has really earned this campaign, this moment, if she chooses, earned it by changing herself, searching, stumbling, and at the end, by standing, not by her man, but by herself."
- Co-host Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America, March 12.

 

Duffy in the Buff


"Some people dream about being naked, and you dream about being...?"
- One of Time Washington Bureau Chief Michael Duffy's questions to Monica Lewinsky, March 15 cover story.