Notable Quotables - 08/21/1989
Economic Doom & Gloom
"Sluggish is the
word several analysts were using today, explaining why they're not convinced
the economy is out of danger. As long as economic growth stays slow-and
consumer spending, housing, and industrial output-recession is a risk that
won't disappear."
- CBS News reporter Richard Roth, August 11 Evening News.
"The danger is that
as the economy picks up, it could become too much of a good thing. Borrowing
and buying by consumers could become excessive. Prices and interest rates
could take off. The problems would again become how to avoid a hard
landing."
- Irving R. Levine on NBC Nightly News, same night.
Economic Boom
"So for now we may
really have the best of both worlds. Lower inflation should help a consumer's
dollar go further at the cash register. And economists say a pick up in retail
sales should be strong enough to keep the economy growing, but not so strong
that inflation heats up all over again."
- Reporter Steven Aug on ABC's World News Tonight, same night.
Margaret Thatcher's Husband
"His almost
flawless public performance is all the more admirable for hiding his true
nature: short-fused, outspoken, arch-conservative....Denis' detractors argue
that his influence on his wife merely reinforces her prejudices."
- Reporter William Mader in Time magazine, August 14 issue.
Jesse Helms and the Arts
"Helms, a longtime
foe of the NEA [National Endowment for the Arts], hopes to use the McCarthyite
tactic of intimidation by implied association to convince his Senate
colleagues that anyone not in favor of his overtly fascistic NEA-controlled
legislation must be an anti-American, child-molesting pornography
aficionado."
- David A. Ross, Director of the Institute for Contemporary Art, in the
August 5 Boston Globe.
"In short, what the
[Helms] amendment proposes is a loony parody of cultural democracy in which
everyone becomes his or he own Cato the Censor. Clearly, Jesse Helms has no
doubt that the NEA must be punished if it strays from what he fancies to be
the center line of American ethical belief. The truth is, of course, that no
such line exists-not in a society as vast, various and eclectic as the real
America...Our problem, despite conservative rant, is too little government
support for the arts, not too much."
- Time art critic Robert Hughes in an August 14 essay.
"Arts and public
broadcasting advocates cast any questioning of federal financing as an assault
on the Temples of Culture by the Huns. Like all groups feeding at the federal
trough, they've created a rhetoric equating their self-interest with the
national interest."
- Newsweek columnist Robert Samuelson, August 21.
Ann Landers
"For years I have
fought to abolish Saturday-night specials and those cop-killing bullets that
explode on impact. I have taken a strong stand against the church or state
telling women what they can and cannot do with their bodies."
- Ann Landers in an August 21 interview with Time magazine's
Elizabeth Taylor.
Blaming America First
"If it were not for
U.S. government policy, if it had not been for the U.S. government support of
the Israeli invasion, which led to all those kidnappings, no American ever
would have been kidnapped in Lebanon. No Americans ever were kidnapped in
Lebanon before the Israeli invasion and it's something worth bearing in
mind."
- ABC News Mideast correspondent Charles Glass on Good Morning America,
August 4.
Where Have You Been?
"In small home
strategy meetings, abortion rights supporters are preparing to do what they
have never done before: to play political hardball."
- Reporter Phil Jones on the August 2 CBS Evening News.
Reporter for Abortion
"'To me, the
struggle for abortion rights is as important to women as the struggle against
slavery,' says a Chicago Tribune reporter. 'This isn't about whether
they're going to build some bridge downtown. This is about my body.'"
- Unidentified reporter quoted in August 14 Time article by Laurence
Zuckerman.
King for a Day
"If I were really
King I'd....Allow every citizen the choice of what to do with his or her own
body....Build a fitting permanent memorial to I.F. Stone, a truly genuine
hero....Place the Presidential wand on Mario Cuomo's shoulder and make him
give it a shot....Make ozone layers and acid rain and all that yuck go away
somewhere."
- Mutual Broadcasting and CNN host Larry King in USA Today, August
7.
Gorbachev's Rule of Law
"For President
Mikhail Gorbachev, it represents both a bold affirmation of his goal of
creating a society governed by law..."
- Time's John Kohan describing Gorbachev's reaction to protest
movements in the Baltic republics, August 21.
Yearning for Dukakis
"I'd much rather
have Dukakis than Bush as President today."
- Boston Globe reporter Scot Lehigh in the July/August Bostonia
magazine.
Dissolving the Contras
"The Presidents
negotiated the dissolution of the Nicaraguan Contras, a force that to many
Central Americans symbolized U.S. arrogance and interference during the
1980's."
- Time Associate Editor Jill Smolowe, August 21.
Washington Post on Massachusetts Politics: Version One
"Andrew H. Card
Jr., deputy to White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu....will announce
today that he will not be a candidate for the GOP nomination for Governor of
Massachusetts."
- Post reporter Maralee Schwartz, August 2.
Washington Post on Massachusetts Politics: Version Two
"Another likely
Republican candidate, Andrew H. Card Jr...."
- From a Post story on Massachusetts, two days later.
- L. Brent
Bozell III; Publisher
- Brent H. Baker, Tim Graham; Editors
- Jim Heiser, Richard Marois, Patrick Swan, Dorothy Warner; Media Analysts
- Cynthia Bulman; Administrative Assistant
