Notable Quotables - 11/07/1994

White House Shooting: Talk Radio Inspired?

"There's so much talk of voter anger out there, Mr. Panetta. Do you think in any way that contributes to a climate where the President is not safe?"
- Today co-host Bryant Gumbel, October 31.

"Did the Secret Service ask him as to whether there might have been connection with the, he was mad about the President signing the crime bill?
- CBS Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer, October 30.

 

The Last-Minute Clinton Spin Patrol

"Presiding over the signing of the Israeli-Jordanian peace treaty is just the latest in a string of foreign policy successes for the President."
- ABC anchor Carole Simpson, October 23 World News Sunday.

"It's unheard of for a President to leave the country just two weeks before critical midterm elections. But theis trip celebrates the latest in a string of foreign policy triumphs."
- CBS reporter Bob Orr, October 23 Evening News.

"President Clinton and Syria's President Assad have now completed their talks this morning, and America's peace-making President appears to have won some grudging concessions from Syria."
- NBC anchor Matt Lauer, October 27 Today.

Host Tina Gulland: "Are we agreed generally that it was a plus week for Clinton in the sense that he was viewed as presidential and in charge of foreign policy?"
ABC and National Public Radio reporter Nina Totenberg: "He was there in the middle of the desert. I mean, it was biblical!"
- Exchange on Inside Washington, October 29.

The Clinton Years: Washington's Methodist Moment?

"Hillary Rodham Clinton is as pious as she is political. Methodism, for her, is not just a church but an extended family of faith that defines her horizons...If the Kennedy era was Camelot and the Reagan White House a ranchero on the Potomac, the Clinton presidency - in the figure of its formidable First Lady - is Washington's Methodist Moment."
- Newsweek reporter Kenneth L. Woodward, October 31.

Clinton Deserves More Credit

"Why is it that so many things don't seem to help this President? I mean, you know, I can remember in days past when Ronald Reagan would get credit if the sun came up in the morning. And yet Bill Clinton, I mean, we're in a situation where the economy is in fairly good shape. There's no real threat from overseas power right now. An yet the President just sort of humps along and just kind of people say 'Well if it was good, it wasn't his fault.'"
- CBS Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer, October 23.

 

Herbert's Wacky World

"It's hard to believe the voters keep falling for the tax-cut con. The Republicans have trotted it out nationally once again, this time with the so-called 'Contract with America.' The 'contract' amounts to a preposterous claim by GOP congressional candidates (led by Newt Gingrich) that they can cut taxes, increase defense spending, and balance the budget. Haven't we heard that fantasy before?...Ronald Reagan lost control of the federal government's finances. Bill Clinton regained control."
- New York Times columnist (and former NBC News reporter) Bob Herbert, October 30.

 

97 Percent of American Don't Pay Gas Taxes?

"In our most recent CBS/New York Times poll, people were asked if their taxes had gone up under the Clinton administration. Somewhere over forty percent said yes, they believed their taxes had gone up, and in fact it's only about three percent whose taxes have gone up."
- CBS News Washington Bureau Chief Barbara Cochran on C-SPAN's Journalists Roundtable, October 21.

"That's one of the most watched House races in the country, partially because there was this very dramatic moment on the floor, where, really, although there's about 12 districts around the country where Republican candidates are saying 'This person cast a deciding vote that raised taxes.' Raised taxes on 1.6 percent of the taxpayers."
- USA Today reporter Bob Minzesheimer discussing Rep. Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky on C-SPAN's Journalists Roundtable, October 21.

 

NBC's Lover of Communist Dictators

"I like this kind of man and I think we need more of them,' gushed Maria Shriver, speaking of Gorbachev, not Arnold."
- October 31 People article on the NBC reporter meeting deposed Soviet dictator Mikhail Gorbachev at the Hollywood launching of Global Green USA.

 

Democrat Trying to Do Good Vs. Inexperienced Radical Nut

"A Democratic activist constrained by the voters' desire here for little more than safe streets and low taxes, versus a radical conservative with virtually no experience in governing."
- ABC reporter Jack Smith summing up the Lawton Chiles-Jeb Bush race for Governor of Florida, October 23 This Week.

 

But if the Drug's Meant to Kill, That's Okay

"Federal health officials are proposing tough new safety rules for testing new drugs. The biggest change? Any time a patient taking an experimental drug gets sick, researchers must now assume the drug is to blame and tell the FDA. This follows a drug safety disaster last year when a new liver drug killed five patients."
- Dan Rather, October 27 Evening News.

"There's official word today that the experimental French abortion pill RU-486 is now being tested on women at unnamed clinics around the country. Researchers say they don't want to identify the U.S. clinics because they fear anti-abortion groups."
- Rather, the very next story.

 

Loving Aristide, Hating Gingrich

"And in Jean-Bertrand Aristide, here was as Christ-like a figure as ever headed a state: devout, dedicated to the poor, and celibate on top of all that."
- Time essayist Barbara Ehrenreich, October 31.

"I think there's a big difference when people told Father Aristide to sort of moderate his views, they were concerned about people being dragged through the streets, killed and necklaced. I don't think that is what Newt Gingrich has in mind. I think he's looking at a more scientific, a more civil way of lynching people."
- National Public Radio reporter Sunni Khalid on C-SPAN's Journalists Roundtable, October 14.

Conservative Voices Ruining America

Tim Russert: "Why isn't Bill Clinton getting credit, Michael Gartner: Is there a bias in the press?"
Michael Gartner: "Oh I don't know. One of the things I think is radio. In this age of the great information superhighway, it's sort of an ox-cart bypath that is doing him in. Everyday there's this drumbeat on the radio. An you can't praise Clinton if you're a radio talk show host."
- Exchange with the former NBC News President on CNBC's Tim Russert, October 10.

 

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