Notable Quotables - 06/24/1991
Sununu Slamming
"Twelve million
American children who do not have enough to eat, who lack adequate health
care, and who are behind in schools and being left behind in life. Much of our
broadcast will be dedicated to that. Which makes the major news in Washington
today seem even more of a contrast. The President's Chief of Staff, John
Sununu, is at the center of attention again having to do with his use of
limousines and corporate jets."
- ABC's Peter Jennings opening the June 18 World News Tonight.
No Wonder They Can't Figure Out the Number of Homeless
"Parade for Gulf
Victory Draws 200,000 in Capital"
- New York Times, June 9
"800,000 Jam D.C.
for Tribute to Troops"
- Washington Post, same day
Teflon for Dukakis
"Now Massachusetts
has a deficit of its own, thanks to the recession and no help from
Washington."
- NBC reporter Fred Briggs, June 12 Nightly News.
Recession Spin Control: Looking at the Down Side...
"Rising Economy
Won't Trigger Surge in Jobs"
- Christian Science Monitor, June 4
"New signs tonight
of lingering recession. Amid all the talk and some evidence about recovery,
unemployment has hit a four-year high. The Bush Administration acknowledges
the jobless rate surged to 6.9 percent last month. CBS News business
correspondent Ray Brady begins our coverage."
- Dan Rather on the June 7 CBS Evening News.
...Or the Up Side
Peter Jennings:
"The government has issued its monthly assessment of unemployment today.
And while the overall unemployment rate went up three-tenths of a percent to
6.9 percent, economists say that the really important news lies elsewhere in
the report. For the first time in nearly a year, businesses hired workers
instead of firing them. Here's economics editor Stephen Aug."
Stephen Aug:
"....Across the country businesses report that they added 59,000 jobs
during May. In each of the first four months this year, they had been cutting
more than 200,000 jobs."
- ABC's World News Tonight, same evening.
Conservatives Damage America
"No matter what its
claims, conservatism has served for much of the 20th century as the political
and philosophical arm of the affluent. Entrusting the economic interests of
the poor and the working class to such a philosophy risks serious damage to
both groups."
- Washington Post reporter Thomas Edsall in the May Atlantic
Monthly.
"Do you see this
country turning more conservative? Do you worry that the freedom of choice is
being removed? That the freedom of diversity is being taken away from us in
this country?"
- CBS reporter Betsy Aaron interviewing Norman Lear on Nightwatch,
June 14.
Race-Baiting Republicans
"Making whites
afraid of or angry at blacks has been a good political tactic in this country
ever since the Civil War. It began to work for Republicans in 1964, when Barry
Goldwater's ideological conservatives captured the party from Eastern
moderates, people like Nelson Rockefeller....Remember those politics as you
chart the progress of this year's civil rights bill. The Republicans labeled
it a quota bill because they know white voters don't like quotas. They hope,
in fact, that quotas will do for President Bush in 1992 what Willie Horton did
for him in 1988."
- CBS chief political correspondent Bruce Morton's commentary on the June 8 CBS
Evening News.
"While we see
George Bush saying that he doesn't like the racist politics, boy, he's letting
his White House staff play it full bore."
- NBC reporter Andrea Mitchell on Today, June 11.
Democrats to the Rescue
Anchor Susan Rook:
"If Senate Democrats get their way, no one in the United States will ever
again have to worry about being able to afford adequate medical care..."
Reporter Candy Crowley:
"...Still, a variety of conflicting interests in the health care system
give Senate Democrats an A for effort and kudos for at least providing a
jumping off point."
- CNN World News, June 5.
Liberal Time
"It's very
important to get away from the labels. And 'liberal' itself bothers me. I
think of myself as being a liberal and I certainly have long applauded what
affirmative action has tried to accomplish."
- Time Editor-at-Large and former Washington Bureau Chief Strobe
Talbott on Inside Washington, June 8.
Up from Reagan
"Like Bush, he can
seem patrician and down-to-earth at the same time. Unlike Bush, he has a
lifelong record of concern for the environment. Taking over the EPA after
Ronald Reagan's attempts to destroy it, Reilly, 51, had nowhere to go but
up."
- Newsweek Contributing Editor Gregg Easterbrook in the June 2 Los
Angeles Times.
If You've Missed the Latest Headlines...
"Politicians led a
victory parade of ga-ga worship, with people hugging tanks that have vacuumed
billions from social programs. The Supreme Court ordered family planning
centers to help keep women barefoot and pregnant by not telling poor women
about abortion, while Congress refuses to appropriate enough funds to feed
poor children. And the President says his big-deal domestic programs are
highways and executions. Meanwhile, the S&L and banking fiascos flash
around the country Willie Horton-style, raping not only women but men and
children yet unborn."
- USA Today Inquiry Editor Barbara Reynolds, June 14.
A Conscientious Family Man With An Appetite for Women
"At 59, Kennedy is
the patriarch of a legendary political family, standard-bearer of American
liberalism, conscientious family man and lawmaker with few peers. He is also,
in some portraits, a man of flawed judgment with an appetite for women, liquor
and ostentatious risks."
- L.A. Times reporter Paul Richter, June 7.
Especially Wise Sandinista
"Two especially
wise Nicaraguans, Sergio Ramirez and Emilio Alvarez Montalvan, were willing to
spend long hours initiating an inquisitive correspondent into their country's
secrets. To me they were not only public figures, but also friends, teachers,
and debating partners. If I came to understand anything about the real
Nicaragua, I have them to thank."
- New York Times reporter
Stephen Kinzer thanking Sandinista Vice President Sergio Ramirez in the
acknowledgments to his book Blood of Brothers: Life and War in Nicaragua.
- 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
