Notable Quotables - 07/15/1996
If Clinton Turns Down the Christian Coalition, It's An Insult to Christians?
"Dole had been invited speak to
the [NAACP] convention yesterday, but declined. He claimed he was already
committed to campaigning and the All-Star baseball game. To those at this
convention, this was quite a stretch and an insult to African-American
voters....By not showing up here, Bob Dole may reinforce those racial divides
along party lines and fuel the anxiety among some Republicans that in this
presidential campaign, Bob Dole might not be up to the challenge."
- NBC reporter Jim Miklaszewski, July 10 Nightly News.
Margaret's Gossip Hypocrisy
"The press has caught Mad Lie
disease, marked by a loss of appetite for the truth and projectile
regurgitation of anything fed to it. No one was surprised when The New York
Post and The Washington Times reported wild allegations from a
slapped-together and unsubstantiated book about the Clintons. But when a
formerly immune host such as ABC's David Brinkley succumbed to the infection
and gave airtime to the screed's author, retired FBI agent Gary Aldrich, the
sickness had reached epidemic proportions."
- Time's Margaret Carlson, July 15.
vs.
"What one does in Washington
behind closed doors generally stays out of the paper. But the persistent rumor
that one of the potential 1988 presidential candidates has a homosexual past
is testing the unacknowledged code of silence among reporters."
- Carlson slinging rumor in the November 1985 Esquire.
Today's Double Standard on Sleaze
"Some of the allegations,
however, are anonymous. Others are conclusions that are not supported by,
certainly, enough evidence to convict somebody in a court of law. I am certain
there are people that'll look at this and they're going to say `This is an
illustration of some of the worst types of irresponsible journalism, character
assassination.' How do you answer that?"
- Today co-host Jack Ford to liberal author Roger Morris on his book
The Clintons: Partners in Power, June 22.
vs.
"Best-selling author Kitty
Kelley has proven both her courage and her credibility with her
no-holds-barred biographies of Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor, and Jacqueline
Kennedy Onassis. Now she's out with her most difficult and explosive book yet.
Nancy Reagan: The Unauthorized Biography goes on sale this morning, and
already people are running for cover, issuing denials from around the nation.
Kitty, good morning...How you been?...This book paints a picture of a totally
unethical, scheming social climber who lied and faked her way through life. Is
that the picture you set out to create?...You won't deny that's what
emerges?"
-Bryant Gumbel beginning a three-day interview with Kitty Kelley, who charged
Nancy Reagan had an affair with Frank Sinatra in the White House, on the April
8, 1991 Today.
Very Civil Non-McCarthyites in the Media
"Gary Aldrich, either is really
a cheap hit man or I think much more likely, Mark, this is sort of a dim dolt
who's been manipulated by a bunch of right-wingers. And it is incumbent upon
the press now to find out who, when and why."
- Wall Street Journal Executive Washington Editor Al Hunt, July 6 Capital
Gang.
"One thing we haven't really
mentioned is the people who are surrounding Mr. Aldrich and in fact they are
members of what I would call the right-wing mafia. I mean they were there for
Paula Jones and they are fueling a lot of what we hear on hate radio."
-
Newsweek contributor Eleanor Clift on CNN's Larry King Live, July 1.
Blaming Conservatives for Everything
"Why is the Christian Right, you
know big right-to-life folks, why are they so quiet on the smoking issue? A
lot of people die because of this."
- Chicago Tribune Washington Bureau Chief James Warren on CNN's Capital
Gang, July 7.
"For the fourth time this year
Washingtonians were warned to boil drinking water because more than 10 percent
of samples tested positive for bacteria. The warning was lifted late Thursday
but not before thousands of people from all over the world, here to see the
fireworks in the nation's capital, were treated to water that would embarrass
a Third World country and Bob Novak. Maybe this is enough to get your
Republicans bent on cutting spending for clean water to reconsider."
- Time columnist Margaret Carlson, July 6 Capital Gang.
Doles Problem: Radical Ideologues
"Dole, who is 72, opposed the creation of Medicare, Medicaid and almost all the other liberal social programs of the Kennedy-Johnson period; but years later he blunted the slashing attacks on those programs by radical ideologues in his own party."
- Los Angeles Times staff writer Richard T. Cooper, June 9.
"Many moderate and independent voters already believe the GOP is caught in the grips of extremist elements hard to the right. So Dole, a moderate who never was a favorite of card-carrying conservatives, can benefit from showing hes not intimidated by them."
- USA Todays Richard Benedetto, June 17.
Joe Kleins Bloviating Numbskullery
"Its not impossible that some peripheral venality was involved (if anyone asked Livingstone for, say, travel factotum Billy Dales FBI file, Im sure hed prove useful). But a massive conspiracy to gather dirt on the opposition? Oh, please.... Gradually, even the most rabid partisans on the committee seemed to understand they were confronted with a case of serious numbskullery rather than clever skullduggery....But if Clinton does survive this pounding, it may mean the revulsion against the -gate phenomenon - 20 years of ever-diminishing scandals - is now more intense than the disgust caused by any individual charge. If so, it would be the Presidents most memorable public service."
- Newsweek Senior Editor Joe Klein, July 8 issue.
"Traditionally - at least since Nixons southern strategy - Republicans have been truly despicable on race, and there are more than a few stalwarts who continue to bloviate disingenuously in support of a colorblind society, by which they mean a tacit relapse into segregation."
- Klein, June 24 Newsweek.
Newtie and the Blowhards
"You want the American people to
trust Newt Gingrich, who would quickly slash away that safety net, who would
really say that our children don't need this kind of protection and who, as
Linda [Cheney] just pointed out, was absolutely behaving badly when he told
his wife who was in the hospital, `Look this is it, I'm out of here.'"
- Washington Post reporter Juan Williams on CNN's Crossfire, June 30.
"The Republican House majority
he [Gingrich] led into Washington two years ago was the most impressive
phalanx to enter the capital since the British came to burn it in 1814."
- Time Senior Writer Richard Lacayo, June 17.
Our Need to Hate
"The obvious explanation for the
return of the bad-seed alien is that after the end of the Cold War, we needed
an implacable enemy and an evil empire on which to project our fearful
fantasies. But I wonder whether it isn't really another form of the current
vogue for immigrant bashing? After all, illegal aliens from, of course, the
Third World, wetbacks from black holes."
- CBS Sunday Morning TV critic John Leonard on trends in science-fiction TV,
June 9.
-L. Brent Bozell
III; Publisher
-Brent H. Baker, Tim Graham; Editors
- Geoffrey Dickens, Gene Eliasen, James Forbes, Steve Kaminski,
and Clay Waters; Media Analysts,
- Kathleen Ruff; Circulation Manager;
-Jessica Anderson, Diane Lewis, Jonathan Stuart, Andrea Wilson; Interns
