Notable Quotables - 06/11/1990
Just Another Capitalist Machine
"Soviet people have
become accustomed to security if nothing else. Life isn't good here, but
people don't go hungry, homeless; a job has always been guaranteed. Now all
socialist bets are off. A market economy looms, and the social contract that
has held Soviet society together for 72 years no longer applies. The people
seem baffled, disappointed, let down. Many don't like the prospect of their
nation becoming just another capitalist machine."
- CNN Moscow reporter Steve Hurst on PrimeNews, May 24.
"Communism is being swept away,
but so too is the social safety net it provided....Factories, previously kept
alive only by edicts from Warsaw, are closing their doors, while institutions
new to the East, soup kitchens and unemployment centers are opening
theirs...Here are the ones who may profit from Poland's economic freedom. A
few slick locals, but mostly Americans, Japanese, and other foreigners out to
cash in on a new source of cheap labor."
- Reporter Bert Quint on CBS This Morning, May 9.
Day After Day, Doubt After Doubt
"April stock dip likely to go
on"
- USA Today, May 1
"Uncertainty paralyzes stock
market"
- USA Today, May 7
"Mood is changing for stocks,
bonds"
- USA Today, May 14
"COVER STORY: But sudden
surge may be short-lived"
- USA Today, May 15
"Individual investors getting
wise to Wall Street rallies"
- USA Today, May 17
"Dow's high still leaves some
skeptics"
- USA Today, May 18
"High-tech slump may doom
rally"
- USA Today, May 29
"Dow may hit potholes on road to
3000"
- USA Today, June 4
"Dow defies doubters, hits new
high"
- USA Today, June 5
You're Not Only Wrong, It Doesn't Matter If You're Right
"Charges from conservative U.S.
columnists that Baker made all the concessions to achieve such breakthroughs
with Gorbachev in Moscow have a surreal air. First, the charges are not true;
nearly all the concessions came from Gorbachev. But more to the point: The
charges are irrelevant. It simply no longer matters who has how many of what;
such bean-counting exercises contribute little to a real-world calculus of
power."
- Boston Globe defense reporter Fred Kaplan in a June 2 "news
analysis."
Soviets Are Disarming?
"Mikhail Gorbachev thinks no
country should use force to dominate another, so from Eastern Europe the tanks
and troops are coming home. Gorbachev thinks in a nuclear age military might
can no longer guarantee security, so the army and its budget are being
cut."
- NBC Moscow reporter Bob Abernethy on the May 28 Nightly News.
"For Gorbachev, disarmament is
indispensable if he is to reverse the continuing decline of the Soviet
economy. This past year, he reduced defense spending by 5 percent, cut
military procurement by 7 percent. The production of tanks was cut in half,
and he reduced military manpower by 200,000 men."
- ABC Moscow reporter Rick Inderfurth on the May 29 World News Tonight.
Are They Really?
"Editor Richard Sharpe said in
the latest [Jane's Fighting Ships] that within the next two years,
the Soviet Union will replace a number of old-fashioned Navy ships, including
17 nuclear and 80 diesel-powered submarines, three cruisers, and 25 frigates.
'The new construction replacement rate is, in terms of tonnage, the highest it
has been in over 20 years for surface ships and the highest in the last decade
for submarines,' Sharpe said....'As the West debates beating its tanks into
ploughshares nd how to spend the peace dividend, Soviet nuclear submarines
roll remorselessly off the production lines.'"
- May 24 dispatch run by the Xinhua news agency.
Get Him Before It's Too Late
"Silber surges ahead in survey
on popular support"
- Boston Herald story on conservative Democratic gubernatorial
candidate, May 23
"Silber's style, effectiveness
as BU chief challenged"
- Boston Globe front page, next day
Abortion Gaffe?
"Feinstein alarmed some pro-choicers
when she said she would consider outlawing abortions for gender
selection....In turn, Van de Kamp could exploit Feinstein's recent gaffes on
abortion..."
- Newsweek General Editor James N. Baker, May 28.
Republican Record Review
"In the liner notes of Red
Hot & Blue, Lee Atwater tells us he recorded the album in part
because black music 'needs more exposure.' R&B needs this kind of exposure
like opera needs Tarzan."
- USA Today music critic Edna Gundersen in a May 18 review.
Incredible Ed
"Thornburgh was the man who
saved the Justice Department from the embarrassment of Edwin Meese...Today,
incredibly enough, there are at least some at Justice who look back on the
Meese years with nostalgia..."
- Newsweek Washington reporters Mark Miller and Ann McDaniel, May
28.
Dan Rather's Glowing Gorbachev
"He has, as many great leaders
have, impressive eyes...There's a kind of laser-beam stare, a forced quality,
you get from Gorbachev that does not come across as something peaceful within
himself. It's the look of a kind of human volcano, or he'd probably like to
describe it as a human nuclear energy plant."
- Dan Rather on Mikhail Gorbachev, quoted in the May 10 Seattle Times.
- L. Brent
Bozell III; Publisher
- Brent H. Baker, Tim Graham; Editors
- Callista Gould, Jim Heiser, Marian Kelley, Gerard Scimeca, Stewart Verdery;
Media Analysts
- Kristin K. Bashore; Administrative Assistant
