Notable Quotables - 04/12/1993
Gumbel's March Madness
"Are you not guilty
of holding President Clinton to a tougher standard than you did two Republican
Presidents who over the last 12 years quadrupled the national debt?"
- Today co-host Bryant Gumbel to Senator Bob Dole, March 2.
"You claim the debt problem actually began with Lyndon Johnson... But he was fighting the Vietnam War and that was most of his problem?...So he had a good reason."
"...I'm not sure there's a grade low enough for this next one: Ronald Reagan. He spoke regularly of balancing the budget, but he broke the bank. In return for his own personal popularity he spent eight years in office and ran up $1.34 trillion in deficits."
"...It's early yet,
but for at least trying to address the deficit in a more serious fashion than
anybody in 12 years, what kind of early marks do you give Bill Clinton?"
- Gumbel's interview with Bankruptcy 1995 co-author Dr. Gerald
Swanson, March 17 Today.
"This nation's
cities have been in trouble for a long time, suffering from a variety of
problems. Faced with declining levels of assistance from Washington over the
last twelve years, long- standing urban problems have been aggravated."
- Gumbel, March 18 Today.
"Is the problem
that the laws are ineffective, or the laws can't be carried out because the
bureau, like every other, is under-staffed, underfunded, a victim of the
Reagan cutbacks?"
- Gumbel to Tom Brokaw about the Immigration and
Naturalization Service, March 26 Today.
"In the greedy
excesses of the Reagan years, the mean income of the average physician nearly
doubled, from $88,000 to $170,000. Was that warranted?"
- Gumbel to Dr. Richard Corlin of the American Medical Association, March 31 Today.
Business as Usual
"Reagan got his
taxation program through, which was to cut taxes to the bone. Mr. Clinton's
going to get his program through, which is to raise taxes to the sky. And let
us hope, Cokie, that it doesn't turn out to have a similar fate. What Reagan
did was destroy the economy!"
- Sam Donaldson on This Week with David Brinkley, March 28.
"Clinton has
managed to dethrone Reagan's soaring vision of lower taxes as the national
cure-all, and replace it with a more pedestrian ideal, that of paying the
nation's bills on time."
- Boston Globe reporter Peter G. Gosselin, March 26 "news
analysis."
"Forty-five minutes
into budget director Leon Panetta's briefing on the economy, it was clear that
something was missing. After 12 years of Ronald Reagan's voodoo economics and
George Bush's low- fat, decaffeinated, nondairy, sodium-free imitation voodoo
economics, there was suddenly no ideology in the federal budget. Panetta
talked like a cheerful, no-nonsense accountant trying to balance the books the
hard way - honestly."
- New York Daily News Washington Bureau Chief Lars-Erik Nelson,
March 15 column.
Responsibility = Voting for Deficit-Doubling 1990 Budget Deal
"Known as `the
Shi'ites' by the moderate Republicans, these are the conservatives who believe
in zealotry at any price and who are basically out to score political points.
On the other hand, you have the pragmatists, who are led by Senate Republican
leader Bob Dole and by Pete Domenici, who have voted for tough deficit
reduction programs in the past and really do feel an obligation to come up
with a responsible alternative."
- NBC reporter Lisa Myers, March 3 Today.
No Liberals Here
Tim Russert: "Where
have all the liberals gone? It sounds like a Peter, Paul, and Mary song, but
I'm watching the activity on the Hill - I can cut $60 [billion], I can cut
$90, let's cut, cut, cut, cut in broad parameters. Next year, when those cuts
really take hold, in education, in health, in welfare, in those kinds of
programs for children, really take hold, will we see some liberal Democratic
voices emerging, saying `Hey, wait a minute, we've gone too far'?"
New York Times
Washington Bureau Chief R.W. Apple: "...[Democrats] think the worst thing
they can be is a grid-locker. It's a worse thing to be a gridlocker than it is
to starve old people today in American politics."
- Meet the Press, March 14.
Riots Caused By Poverty
"When rioting,
looting, and arson erupted last spring, it wasn't just anger over the Rodney
King verdict, it was an explosion of rage over years of social and economic
neglect, poor schools, violent streets, joblessness, poverty, and no hope. Has
anything changed? Quite honestly, very little has."
- CNN reporter Greg Lamotte, March 22 World News.
484 of 577 Seats: No Mandate
Someone Had to Win
France Goes to the Right, by Default
- New York Times, April 4
After White: Less Far Right, More Rights & a Real Black
"[Byron White's]
leaving will mean that the voting power of the far right will be greatly
undercut."
- CBS reporter Rita Braver, March 19 Evening News.
"Replacing White, a
conservative, with a liberal voice would give Clinton a chance to loosen the
conservative hold on the bench. That could move the court toward a broader
interpretation of individual rights and away from a preference for
governmental authority."
- Washington Post reporter Joan
Biskupic, March 21.
"Don't count out
Marian Wright Edelman, because there is talk that President Clinton may want
to shock the nation by putting a real black on the Supreme Court."
- Columnist Carl Rowan on Inside Washington, March 20.
Explaining the Oscars
"The
Oscar-nominated movies, like their audiences, have forgotten that the
jingoistic Gulf War ever happened. Their definition of an ideal man -
pacifistic except in self-defense, misty-eyed, in touch with his feminine side
- is a central-casting call for the new President, who escaped the Vietnam
draft and makes empathy an art. The heavies in these films are reminiscent of
George Bush in full bellicose sputter and the lunatics in uniform who ran amok
in the Iran-Contra scandal."
- New York Times film critic Frank Rich, March 21 New York Times
Magazine.
Passing On Fantasy as Fact
"Magic Johnson is
taking his AIDS prevention message to Japan. The former L.A. Lakers star told
an AIDS conference in Tokyo that three-quarters of all new AIDS victims are
heterosexual."
- CBS This Morning co-host Harry Smith, March 25.
Publisher: L. Brent
Bozell III
Editors: Brent H. Baker, Tim Graham
Media Analysts: Jessica Anderson, Eric Darbe,
Geoffrey Dickens, Mark Drake, Clay Waters
Research Associate: Kristina Sewell
Circulation Manager: Michelle Baetz
Interns: Stacey Felzenberg, Carrie Hale
