Notable Quotables - 08/09/1999
Hillary, Frank and Candid?
"Frank talk from the First
Lady....In a move that some Washington insiders say may hurt her chances at a
Senate run, First Lady Hillary Clinton has talked at length, and with
considerable candor, about her relationship with the President and why she has
stayed the course with their marriage. As Sharyl Attkisson reports, the First
Lady's words paint a picture of a man who couldn't help himself and a
woman who wouldn't give up."
- CBS Evening News anchor
John Roberts opening the August 1 broadcast.
ABC's Shill-Filled Showcase
"I think all of this is probably
speculation on her part, but I think this is the narrative by which she has
lived with this marriage, which is quite wonderful in its, you know, in its
interdependence of conversation, of ideas, of excitement, of chemistry, sexual
chemistry."
- Lucinda Franks, who conducted
the Talk magazine interview of Hillary Clinton, August 2 Good
Morning America on ABC.
Host Diane Sawyer: "I'm curious, Tina, as an editor,
when you were reading through it, what was it, what was the single revelation,
I guess, that most surprised you about her?"
Talk Magazine Editor Tina Brown: "I think the
revelation of the piece, really, is the depth and deeply powerful bond these
two people have....What you feel is this is a couple who share the passion for
the world, for doing good for politics, for making life better for other
people. This is their great bond, and it really has brought them together with
almost a sort of spiritual intensity."
Franks: "And you can see this, and people who are close
to them see this kind of chemistry. I mean, its a real love."
- Same interview.
Neither Party is Socialist Enough
"You mentioned the Patients'
Bill of Rights. It seems like that was an argument by both parties over
providing more for people who already are lucky enough to have health
insurance. And in fact, neither party dealt with some very fundamental issues
that energized you and the First Lady five and six years ago. The question is:
With such a robust economy and the budget surpluses, if not now, when? And if
not you, who would provide the leadership to provide for those folks?"
- Los Angeles Times
Washington bureau reporter Ed Chen to Clinton at a July 21 presidential press
conference.
Stop That Stupid Tax Cut
"The vocabulary has changed so
that tax cuts now look like irresponsible spending and spending on investments
and education and Medicare looks like the responsible thing to do because if I
get $100 back, I can't go fix a school or clean a river, and people are more
interested in these things than they are in the tax cut, and the poll numbers,
you know, don't explain this. I mean the only thing that could explain this
love of tax cuts is a lowered IQ."
- Time's Margaret
Carlson on CNN's Capital Gang, July 24.
Host Gordon Peterson: "A package of nearly $800 billion
in tax reductions that some Democrats described as irresponsible, crazy, a
boondoggle for the rich. How would you describe it, Evan?"
Newsweek Assistant Managing Editor Evan Thomas:
"I'm with the Democrats on this one. I think they ought to take that
surplus, put a fence around it and keep it for the entitlement programs
because we're going to need it.....They are blowing a chance to make a
[Medicare] deal. This is the absolute prime moment when they ought to be doing
reform and instead they're talking about this stupid tax cut."
- Exchange on the July 31 Inside
Washington.
"But now the President is also calling for a tax cut. So tomorrow the
House may consider a Republican proposal to cut taxes by $800 billion over ten
years and possibly a Democratic alternative to cut taxes by less than half
that. So voters may well get a tax cut whether they want one or not."
- ABC reporter Linda Douglass,
July 20 World News Tonight.
"At 10 am E.T. last Thursday, nine of the nation's top conservative
economists stopped what they were doing, placed a call to the same telephone
number and spent the next 90 minutes debating how to save George W. Bush from
his own party."
- Time reporter James
Carney in an August 9 article titled "Bush's Tax Tango: He wants to
please rich Republicans and keep his pledge to be compassionate. Can he pull
it off?"
Now This Golden Oldie from 88...
"George Bush campaigned in a
flag factory during his 1988 presidential run against Michael Dukakis. Bush
was blasting Dukakis back then as a card-carrying member of the American Civil
Liberties Union. A faint echo of the late Joseph McCarthy's card-carrying
member of the Communist Party, but it seemed to help Bush."
- Reporter Bruce Morton in a 4th
of July retrospective on CNN's Late Edition, July 4.
Nikes Evil Empire
"Quite simply, for many workers
around the world the oppression of the unchecked commissars has been replaced
by the oppression of the unregulated capitalists, who move their manufacturing
from country to country, constantly in search of those who will work for the
lowest wages and lowest standards. To some, the Nike swoosh is now as scary as
the hammer and sickle."
- New York Times
columnist Thomas Friedman, July 30.
Gun Control Hopes
"The shots that rang out in the
Atlanta massacre were heard clearly by lawmakers on Capitol Hill today. While
it may have been loud enough to put gun control back in the spotlight, CBS's
Diana Olick reports it might not be enough to spark serious change."
- CBS Evening News anchor
John Roberts, July 30.
"My guess, in fact, is that the hour has come and gone that the great
majority of Americans are saying they favor gun control when they really mean
gun banishment...I think the country has long been ready to restrict the use
of guns, except for hunting rifles and shotguns, and now I think were
prepared to get rid of the damned things entirely the handguns, the semis
and the automatics...I doubt that it will be 25 years before we're rid of
the things. In 10 years, even five, we could be looking back on the past three
decades of gun violence in America the way one once looked back upon 18th
century madhouses. I think we are already doing so but not saying so."
- Essayist Roger Rosenblatt,
August 9 Time.
JFK Jr.: Media's "Sun God"
"The star power has diminished.
John Kennedy Jr. was the Sun God, the most charismatic of any of the Kennedy
children. So that will lower their wattage some, but there are enough Kennedys
out there making enough contributions that they will be part of the life of
this country well into the next century."
- Newsweek's Jonathan
Alter on the Kennedy family without John F. Kennedy Jr., July 23 Dateline
NBC.
"If Nixon symbolically represents Iago, constantly plotting revenge on
his enemies, then the Kennedys, first the father and now the son, are the
modern-day embodiments of Icarus. In their love for action and adventure, in
the charisma that effortlessly radiated from their every gesture, the Kennedys
will always represent the triumph and ultimate tragedy of flying too near the
sun."
- USA Today "Hype
& Glory" columnist Walter Shapiro, July 21.
Teddy: Champion of the Little Guy
"The Kennedy legacy really
endures: Senator Kennedy has been in the United States Senate for 36 years,
and the baby boom generation my generation has a Lieutenant Governor
in Maryland, Congressman Patrick Kennedy from Rhode Island, Joe Kennedy is not
in Congress now, but everyone in Massachusetts will tell you that he'll
probably be Governor of Massachusetts some day. So the legacy of values and a
significant achievement has endured."
- CNN reporter Chris Black from
Hyannisport on the July 20 Late Edition/Prime Time.
"If his private life is shaped by his love for children and stepchildren,
his public one is still shaped by his concern for the little guy, the one who
parks your car, rings the cash register at the convenience store, catches the
early bus. As he left town he was trying to expand health care, and when he
comes back from burying his nephew, he will be fighting to raise the minimum
wage."
- Time columnist Margaret
Carlson on Ted Kennedy, August 2.
"Yet his achievements as a Senator have towered over his time, changing
the lives of far more Americans than remember the name Mary Jo Kopechne....He
deserves recognition not just as the leading Senator of his time but also as
one of the greats in the history of this singular institution, wise in its
workings, especially its demand that a Senator be more than partisan to
accomplish much."
- Excerpt in the August 2 Time
from a forthcoming biography of Ted Kennedy by New York Times reporter
Adam Clymer.
Colin Powell, Gun Nut
"And General Powell, one of the
aspects of the program that I think may get some attention is that there is
training in riflery, in marksmanship here. I understand they use .22 caliber
rifles. At a time when we are so sensitive, it seems, to the connection
between young people and guns, do you think it's a good idea to be putting
them in contact with guns in high school?"
- Today co-host Matt
Lauer to Colin Powell in interview about expanding ROTC in high schools, July
30.
...A Minute Here, A Minute There
Fred Barnes:
"One of the things I wondered about is, she said there were ten years in
which he was faithful. Now I don't know whether she meant ten consecutive
years or ten cumulative years, you know, a year here and a year there."
Brit Hume: "It could be an hour here, an hour
there."
- August 2 exchange on FNC's Special
Report with Brit Hume about Hillary's claim to Talk magazine
about Bill Clinton.
Publisher: L.
Brent Bozell
Editors: Brent H. Baker, Tim Graham
Media Analysts: Jessica Anderson, Brian Boyd,
Geoffrey Dickens, Mark Drake, Paul Smith, Brad Wilmouth
Research Associate: Kristina Sewell
Circulation Manager: Michelle Kunzler
Interns: Joyce Garczynski, Ken Shepherd
