Notable Quotables - 08/20/1990
Saddamologists
"Talking about
Kuwait in this camp is like talking about Sutton Place in the South Bronx. The
Kuwaitis, they say, have billions of dollars invested abroad while there's
hunger here and in many parts of the Arab world....The Kuwaitis built a wall
around their perfume garden, and only let other Arabs in to keep it green.
When Saddam Hussein broke it down, he acted out the secret dream of every Arab
who'd ever worked there. And the Arab world is now rising in anger against the
United States."
- Reporter Bob Simon on the CBS Evening News, August 7.
"Instead of trying
to find reasons to excoriate Saddam, who killed his first human at age 14, try
to think of him as a man of principle. He is certainly more than up front with
his business partners, and he neither sells crack nor wears fur....He has
returned 'gas guzzler' and 'alternative energy' to their rightful place in the
American lexicon."
- USA Today Senior Editor J. Taylor Buckley in his "From the
Hip" column, August 10.
"I consider him
[Saddam Hussein] an American agent or Zionist agent because he is fulfilling
for America and fulfilling for Israel all their dreams. America wanted to
control the area, control our region."
- Cairo magazine editor interviewed by Garrick Utley, August 12 NBC
Nightly News.
Reimpose the Carter Energy Policy
"But perhaps the
latest crisis will finally drive home the point that America must take steps
to keep its economic well-being from being hostage to the whims of faraway
nations. Americans pay too little for energy generally and for gasoline in
particular. A 50 cent per gal. gasoline tax phased in over five years would
encourage conservation and raise $50 billion in revenues."
- Time's Richard Hornik, August 20.
"The Persian Gulf
crisis is already resulting in higher gas prices at the pump, exposing the
[Bush] administration's lack of an energy policy. We'll talk of just how much
that figures to cost him."
- Bryant Gumbel on NBC's Today, August 7.
Lawton Chiles: On the Way Up or Down?
"Here Comes Talkin'
Lawton: A legendary figure seeks Florida's statehouse with a message so quaint
no other candidate would try it. He might make it work."
- August 20 Time story on Florida gubernatorial candidate who only
accepts contributions up to $100
"Chile's Lead
Dwindling in Florida Primary: Front-Runner in Gubernatorial Race on Defensive
About Finances, Use of Antidepressant"
- Washington Post, August 14
Stark's Remarks
"Could you imagine
the outpouring in this town had John Sununu, for example, said that some black
member of Congress was a disgrace to his race. I mean, people would be lying
down in front of automobiles on Pennsylvania Avenue. It would be an
unbelievable outrage and the media would be exploding."
- ABC White House correspondent Brit Hume on kid-gloves treatment of Rep.
Pete Stark (D-CA) after he called HHS Secretary Louis Sullivan "a
disgrace to his race," ABC's This Week with David Brinkley,
August 5.
Taxoholics Unanimous
"I'm for a tax
increase to help solve the budget deficit problem. If this is the only way we
can get money from the wealthy, alright, but I would prefer to see an increase
in the rates, at least to 33 percent, rather than the cap on state
taxes."
- Sam Donaldson on This Week with David Brinkley, July 29.
Hating the '80s
"Okay, Democrats
are certainly not without blame. But I believe the S&L crisis lands right
at the Republican door. It was the magic of the marketplace that took off the
regulations...Oh, Ronald Reagan and the magic of the marketplace was the theme
of the '80s. Greed in this country is associated with Ronald Reagan."
- Newsweek reporter Eleanor Clift on Face the Nation, July
29.
Gene Shalit:
"Peter, Paul and Mary will be touring all over the United States between
now and the middle of September."
Bryant Gumbel:
"Let's hope the times would warrant those kind of songs again now that
the '80s are done with."
- exchange on Today, July 11.
Abortion Outrage
"This week abortion
was big news at the American Bar Association meeting in Chicago. The group
narrowly voted to stop supporting the right of American women to choose a
safe, legal abortion. Talk about cowardice. Here is the nation's preeminent
legal organization faced with the major legal issue of our time and when push
comes to shove, they fade into the woodwork....You've got to look at what
lawyers stand for in our society. If they don't stand for what we are about on
laws, they don't stand for anything."
- Washington Post reporter Juan Williams' "outrage of the
week" on CNN's Capital Gang, August 11.
Cuddly Communists
"Joe Slovo, the
[Communist] Party Secretary General who once served as the chief of the ANC's
military wing, is a folk hero in the nation's black townships, feted in songs
for his unflinching commitment to the black nationalist cause....With his
friendly smile and twinkling eyes, Slovo, 64, more resembles a jovial
grandfather or sympathetic professor than an orthodox Stalinist."
- Washington Post reporter David Ottaway, July 12.
PBS on Cuba
"After seeing our
footage, she told us that Frontline doesn't co-produce anti-communist
programs."
- Cinematographer Nestor Almendros on a Frontline producer's
reaction to his anti-Castro documentary Nobody Listened, quoted by
Don Kowet in the August 8 Washington Times.
"Fidel touched this
young machine adjuster, and the man enjoyed a mild ecstasy. I know the
feeling."
- Institute for Policy Studies Senior Fellow Saul Landau in his pro-Castro
documentary The Uncompromising Revolution, aired along with Nobody
Listened on PBS August 8.
Kinder, Gentler Bolsheviks
"It's almost
impossible for most Americans to understand a government organization that
monitors everything, that has tentacles reaching into all aspects of Soviet
life. But keep in mind the KGB is like a combination of the CIA, the FBI, of
the National Security Agency, the Secret Service, and the Coast Guard, too.
From Lenin to Stalin to Gorbachev, its members have been a proud corps of the
national elite, intelligent, talented, and fully in control. The officers of
the KGB, in fact, decided reform was necessary long before Gorbachev came to
power."
- Diane Sawyer on ABC's Prime Time Live, August 2.
Who Looks Silly?
"For the next 90
minutes the woman who has become an unwilling symbol of publicly funded
obscenity proceeds to make her accusers look awfully silly....Midway through
the show, and without fanfare, she takes off her dress to reveal a black
corset. She pours Jell-O into the bra cups, and sashays around the table with
her breasts jiggling obediently."
- General Editor Laura Shapiro on
"performance artist" Karen Finley, August 6 Newsweek.
- L. Brent
Bozell III; Publisher
- Brent H. Baker, Tim Graham; Editors
- Callista Gould, Jim Heiser, Marian Kelley, Gerard Scimeca; Media Analysts
- Kristin K. Bashore; Administrative Assistant
