Notable Quotables - 04/21/1997
Let's Discredit Investigations in Advance
Peter Jennings: "When we come back, two
investigations of fundraising abuse, two of them on Capitol Hill. Is it a
waste of time and money?"
John Cochran: "....But they don't want to
get together. The easy-going Thompson, who may have presidential aspirations,
says it's important to be as tough on Republicans as Democrats....But Dan
Burton is a hard-charging partisan and has resisted investigating anyone but
Democrats....So although Congress complains a lot about too much duplication
in government, we'll be seeing double when the House and Senate begin months
of dueling hearings into campaign fundraising."
- ABC's April 10 World
News Tonight.
"The UFO comparison is apt in his case.
He is considered flaky and a bit of a crackpot, even though a nice guy. Some
crackpots are nice."
- Time columnist Margaret Carlson on House
Government Operations Committee Chairman Dan Burton, referring to Hillary
Clinton's comment that attention to Whitewater "reminds me of some
people's obsession with UFO's and the Hale-Bopp comet." April 12 CNN
Capital Gang.
"I mean, it's an interesting
juxtaposition between Representative Burton, a Republican from Indiana, who is
sort of like the Republicans' wacky aunt stuck down in the basement. You don't
want to let her out in front of the guests."
- Chicago Tribune
Washington Bureau Chief James Warren, CNN's Capital Gang, April 13.
"Burton is a car wreck waiting to happen.
He's got real problems himself on campaign fundraising. Some lobbyist accused
him of trying to extort money from him. The Justice Department's on the case.
Burton is, shall we say, a complicated guy. He once, I think, said he wanted
to nuke Iraq to avoid the Kuwait War. I mean, he's got all sorts of problems.
It's great for the White House to take the press attention away from a
serious, sober congressional hearing and put it on Burton."
- Newsweek's
Evan Thomas, April 12 Inside Washington.
Impolite to Point Out China's Communist
"Republicans call this money `a direct
slap at those brave young Americans who spilled their blood defending
freedom.' China is referred to as 'Red China.' Why not just call it 'China'?
Why 'Red China'?"
- Reporter Phil Jones to the National Republican
Senatorial Committee's Steve Law, Apr. 4 CBS Evening News.
"This fundraising letter that your
organization has put out, raising what was described as a Red scare, making
the accusation that the Clinton White House, quote, 'sold for illegal foreign
cash,' was sold for illegal foreign cash...and that included money from 'Red
China, which still considers itself a communist country.' You were criticized
by the Democrats for raising this Red scare. Any second thoughts about this
kind of letter, which apparently was very successful, though, in raising funds
for your Senatorial Campaign Committee?"
- CNN's Wolf Blitzer to Senator
Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Inside Politics, April 5.
The Caricature Will Remain - We Keep Reinforcing It
"In fact, the Speaker will forever remain
his own caricature - a Dennis the Menace meets Darth Vader kind of guy. A
fellow who, for instance, wants to give all children in America laptops but
take away their free school lunches."
- U.S. News & World Report
Assistant Managing Editor Gloria Borger, April 7.
"The Republicans in Congress had shown a
nasty streak about Medicare and Medicaid that most Americans wanted no part
of; Gingrich was no longer amusing as Newt the Menace, and was now seen as the
Bad Seed...Clinton thus positioned himself not so much against Dole as against
Gingrich, now viewed by the public as the blistering ideologue who had
gleefully shut down the government twice in the budget battles of late 1995
and early 1996."
- Unbylined dispatches from Time's 1996 Year in Review
book.
Tom Hayden: Nasty As He Wants to Be
"It would [be] easy to poke fun at the
gonzo tactics of this former '60s radical, former husband of Jane Fonda,
former comrade of Cesar Chavez turned 15-year veteran of the state assembly,
where he has crusaded on behalf of gun control, the environment, and his view
of social justice. But it would also be wrong."
- New York Times
reporter Todd Purdum, after noting Hayden accused his opponent, Los Angeles
Mayor Richard Riordan, of being a "racist" and being complicit in
the death of a subway worker, April 4.
Happy Band of Whitewater Whitewashers
"I think we really have to look at the
context. A lot of the so-called FOBs, Friends of Bill's, were really getting
their clocks cleaned. And there was perhaps his closest friend and one of
Hillary's closest associates who is now really out on the street. I mean he
resigned. He had no law practice. He had no income. And these are people who
really, you know, these are people who go back years and decades, and I think
there is at least as much reason to believe that compassion motivated them as
much as anything else...this is sort of a group of people who came here as a
happy band of brothers and were getting, you know, knocked off one by
one."
- U.S. News Editor-in-Chief Mortimer Zuckerman on CNBC's Hardball,
April 7.
"On Hubbell, you know, I think there's a
real chance that there's less there than meets the eye. At least nothing
illegal. A) Hubbell at the time was only accused of some kind of billing
impropriety with this law firm which that then didn't seem like a big deal. We
didn't know he was a congenital cheat back then. Secondly, there were a dozen
people or more who tried to help him. If it was a hush money conspiracy as Ken
Starr, the special counsel, suggests, that's too many people to have involved.
Moreover, the effort by [Erskine] Bowles was pretty passive. He didn't even
succeed. And see, no one has adequately explained what Hubbell was trying, was
being hushed up from saying."
- Wall Street Journal Executive Washington
Editor Al Hunt on CNN's Capital Gang, April 5.
Angry Diatribes Okay, If They're on Liberal NPR
"Mike from Cambridge was calling from his
car phone this morning to tell two United States Senators just how mad he was
about the latest campaign fundraising mess....'We're in danger of losing our
democracy or even our liberty unless we take action to correct it.' Rush
Limbaugh it wasn't. The callers to WBUR, a National Public Radio affiliate
here, sounded more like articulate university professors rather than angry
citizens ready to take on the system."
- New York Times reporter Eric
Schmitt, March 26.
How About a 100 Percent Tax on Ink for Moronic Columns
"The market way to fairness is to impose
a hefty tax on political TV advertising. Paul Taylor, an energetic reformer,
urges a tax of 50 percent. He would use the proceeds to underwrite vouchers,
to be distributed among political parties and candidates for the purchase of
TV time in any market. That's a halfway measure. Better yet, in my view, would
be a 100 percent surcharge on every political TV and radio commercial to pay
for an opponent's immediate response in the same market, to the same audience.
A stiff tax would assure that the more a candidate spent on TV, the greater
the subsidy for his or her rivals."
- Former New York Times Executive
Editor Max Frankel in The New York Times Magazine, March 30.
Cronkite: America Loves Liberals
"[Mario] Cuomo was a rare combination: an
intellectual and a spellbinding orator. I would have bet that he could have
won the Democratic nomination and been elected to the presidency. He had
electrified the 1984 Democratic convention with his keynote speech, and I
never saw him fail to excite those who shared his liberal vision of America's
future. Despite the pollsters and political operators' contrary opinions, I
remain convinced that the public was ready for a leader who could restore that
vision after the selfish eighties. I don't believe the public has rejected
liberalism; it simply has not heard a candidate persuasively advocate its
humane and deeply democratic principles."
- Walter Cronkite in his book
A Reporter's Life.
L. Brent Bozell III, Publisher
Brent H. Baker, Tim Graham, Editors
Geoffrey Dickens, Gene Eliasen, James Forbes, Steve Kaminski, Clay Waters;
Media Analysts
Kathleen Ruff, Marketing Director
Kristina Sewell, Research Associate
Carey Evans, Circulation Manager
Brian Schmisek, Intern
