Notable Quotables - 06/10/1991
Bush Unjustly Lives
"With Bush's
doctors saying the President is well on the road to recovery, the story would
seem to have a happy ending, except for one potentially big White House public
relations problem. If Bush had been one of the 32 million Americans who have
no health insurance, he conceivably could have died from lack of treatment or
have been wiped out financially in an effort to pay for the care. The issue
threatens to plague the President as he seeks re-election."
- Boston Globe Washington reporter Michael Kranish inventing a front
page "news story," May 27.
Go Quota Bill
"The Republican
goal is to associate the Democrats with the dread word quota. George Bush's
private polls have underscored the lesson North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms
delivered in his ugly finale against black Democrat Harvey Gantt last November
- that wavering white Democrats will scurry into the GOP camp at the mere
suggestion that blacks deserve special treatment to compensate for centuries
of bigotry."
- Time Associate Editor Priscilla Painton, May 27.
"For better or
worse, quotas have become what's known in American politics as a hot-button
issue, easily exploited in the quick context of a television commercial. Look
at this one from last year's Senate race in North Carolina. Republican Jesse
Helms was narrowly re-elected, although his black opponent was as anti-quota
as he. No wonder Democrats like House Majority Leader Gephardt are worried
about how Republicans will use the quota issue in future campaigns."
- ABC's Jim Wooten, June 5 World News Tonight.
"Jobs Bill Would
Allow Numbers Yet Ban Quotas"
- New York Times headline, May 29
The Anti-Poor, Anti-Free Speech Court
"This isn't even a
case about whether abortion should be legal. Like it or not, it is legal. This
is, rather, a case about whether you can talk about abortion. For the first
tie in history, the Supreme Court has said you cannot express a certain
viewpoint if you depend on the government for economic support. This is
outrageous, and scary and wrong."
- NBC News President Michael Gartner in May 29 USA Today column.
"The court's ruling
in Rust v. Sullivan made little medical or intellectual or moral
sense."
- Associate Editor Jill Smolowe in Time's June 3 news story.
"What was
astonishing here was not that the Court opposes abortion. What was astonishing
was its absurd view that medical personnel paid with government money lose
their right to free speech. The Constitution says no law shall abridge freedom
of speech, no law. Could it be that the Court hasn't read that part? ....Was
[David Souter] able and willing to read the Constitution as a member of the
Court? Would he abide by it? Well, now we know the answer. It's no."
- David Brinkley ending ABC's This Week, May 26.
"This sets a
different standard of health care for poor people. To me, it's as egregious as
the colored-only signs on water fountains in this country."
- Newsweek reporter Eleanor Clift, May 25 McLaughlin Group.
Watch Us, We Hate Memorial Day
"Check us out -
especially after the patriotic, knee-jerk jingoism of the [Memorial Day]
weekend."
- Tom Weinberg, producer of the PBS series showcasing "independent"
films, The '90s, May 28 USA Today.
Hating Reagan from the Newsroom to the Boardroom
"I'm not real
worried about the political tenor of the times because the political tenor of
the times during the Reagan Administration years was absolutely terrible on
this score [civil rights/quotas] and many others."
- American Society of Newspaper Editors President and Miami Herald
Publisher David Lawrence on The MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour, June 4.
Catholics Worse Than Communists
"But most of his
fellow countrymen do not share John Paul's concept of morality...many here
expect John Paul to use his authority to support Church efforts to ban
abortion, perhaps the country's principal means of birth control. And this,
they say, could deprive them of a freedom of choice the communists never tried
to take away from them."
- CBS reporter Bert Quint on the June 1 Evening News.
Evil Conservatives, Good Liberals
"The fight to
succeed Sil Conte next month is in large part a struggle pitting
job-exporting, moneyed interests seeking sweatshops and tax breaks against
lunch-pail progressives struggling to save manufacturing jobs and fight for
fair taxes."
- Boston Globe Washington columnist Tom Oliphant on the June 4
special congressional election, May 24.
Democrats Should Be Liberals
"Michael Dukakis
was a liberal, of course, and got whipped. But he got whipped because he
allowed the campaign to be defined by things like Willie Horton and the Pledge
of Allegiance. The voters were with George Bush on those. Liberal Democrats
could define a campaign on other issues: the environment, making the United
States technologically competitive, health care for Americans. Liberal
Democrats could do that, the voters might even buy it. But first, the party
would have to remember who it is, which is why [George] McGovern may have done
them a favor by reminding them they've lost their sense of identity, lost
their old liberal soul and need to find it again."
- CBS chief political correspondent Bruce Morton's commentary on the May 25 Evening
News.
Is Nothing Safe?
"Can Lawns Be
Justified? Awash in fertilizers and pesticides, they may be a hazard to
homeowners - and children, pets and neighbors"
- Time, June 3
At Least He Wouldn't Be on PBS
"Q. In the context
of ethical leadership, whom, past or present, do you admire? A. Bill Moyers is my
hero. I'd like to see him as President."
- Former U.S. Representative Barbara Jordan in Time interview, June
3.
Plenty of Jobs During the Great Depression
"These three
students at American University want that same chance [to attend private
college], even though it means graduating to the poorest job prospects
ever."
- NBC's Henry Champ on Today, June 3.
Willard Scott, Global Warming Skeptic
"We keep thinking
the world is ending. You know, the sky is falling, Chicken Little, that this
heat wave has never happened before...But back in 1911 - that was before any
of the other stuff that we sent up into the air that supposedly may cause
problems - in 1911, nine days of 90 or higher in Washington. So there."
- Today weatherman Willard Scott, May 29.
- L. Brent Bozell III;
Publisher
- Brent H. Baker, Tim Graham; Editors
- Nicholas Damask, Sally Hood, Marian Kelley, Tim Lamer; Media Analysts
- Jennifer Hardebeck; Circulation Manager
