Notable Quotables - 11/19/2007
Hillary, the “Moral Conservative”
“On foreign policy, she [Hillary Clinton] is a little more hawkish than the rest of the Democratic Party, and certainly more than the primary base is. It seems that on social issues, by which I mean kind of welfare and economic issues, she’s fairly liberal. But she’s a moral conservative. Which is to say that she also gets behind, you know, things like values issues. She’s endorsed a plan to lower abortion rates that actually just passed through the House and Senate conference committee this week.”
— Time’s Amy Sullivan on MSNBC’s Tucker, November 8. (With WMV Video/MP3 audio)
Hillary’s “Too Favorable Press”
“We were going to hit this point, Diane. She [Hillary Clinton] is running way too far ahead in the polls. And so she’s a front-runner, and the candidates are beating up on her. The press is going after her. She’s had way too favorable press at this point in the season. And so there she is.”
— ABC’s Cokie Roberts reacting to the suggestion Clinton is being criticized because she’s a woman, Good Morning America, November 2.
“Despite all the grumbling, however, the press has showered Hillary with strikingly positive coverage. ‘It’s one of the few times I’ve seen journalists respect someone for beating the hell out of them,’ says a veteran Democratic media operative. The media has paved a smooth road for signature campaign moments like Hillary’s campaign launch and her health care plan rollout, and has dutifully advanced campaign-promoted themes like Hillary’s ‘experience’ and expertise in military affairs.”
— New Republic Senior Editor Michael Crowley in “Bunker Hillary: Clinton’s strategy for crushing the media,” November 12 issue.
He’s Harry’s Hero
“I’ve actually admired Dennis Kucinich for a long — since he was Mayor of Cleveland.”
— CBS’s Harry Smith on The Early Show, November 2.
vs.
“Mr. Kucinich presided over the city’s plunge into default in 1978. The collapse attracted international ridicule and, except for a brief sojourn on the City Council in the early ’80s, left the obstreperous boy wonder in political exile for 15 years.”
— From an April 23, 2003 profile of Kucinich by New York Times reporter Carl Hulse.
Congratulations, “Ozone Man”
“One man has made it his mission to warn the world about the dangers of an Earth that is heating up: former Vice President Al Gore. He won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work just last month....Mr. Vice President, good morning to you. I’m gonna be the first one here to say congratulations....Back in 1992, the first President Bush called you ‘Ozone Man.’ He ridiculed your efforts to bring attention to climate change. He even called you crazy at one point. So is this [prize a] vindication, of a sort, for you?”
— NBC’s Meredith Vieira to Gore on Today, November 5.
Bye-Bye, Manhattan
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg: “There’s no question that we’re damaging our environment. Here in New York City we’ve got a plan to plant a million trees, to reduce the number of cars on the streets, to make buildings pollute a lot less....Congress talks about goals to reduce carbon in the year 2050. How many people in Congress today are going to be alive in 2050? Just do the math, not very many.”
Co-host Harry Smith: “Right.”
Bloomberg: “We need to do something now.”
Smith: “Manhattan will be underwater by 2050.”
— Exchange on CBS’s The Early Show, November 5. (With WMV Video/MP3 audio)
Mother Earth, Abuse Victim
“My nominee was a woman — a victim of abuse. A strong, resilient woman who is a constant topic of discussion these days: Mother Earth.”
— NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams in a November 8 post to his “Daily Nightly” blog, revealing his pick for Time’s annual “Person of the Year.”
Another Victim of Big Oil: God
Reporter Bianna Golodryga: “Americans are changing their everyday routine in the face of rapidly rising gas prices. Filling up his minivan cost Juan Martinez a mega-fortune....Skyrocketing gas prices are affecting this Phoenix area father of five across the board. Grocery shopping is scaled back to the basics....Vacations will be short hops, and even holiday gift shopping won’t be the same....It’s even taking a toll on the family’s relationship with God.”
Juan Martinez: “Our church is approximately 35, 40 miles away. We’ve really cut down on the amount of times that we’ve come in to service since the price has gone up.”
— ABC’s Good Morning America, November 12.
Justice Thomas: Bitter Eccentric
“Clearly the most eccentric, the most unusual, the most complex character on the court is Clarence Thomas....This is a guy who, sixteen years after he’s been on the Supreme Court, is as bitter, is as angry, is as isolated from the black community as he was on the day he was confirmed....He is not just the most conservative member of this court. He’s the most conservative Justice to have served on the court since the 1930s....He is a highly partisan figure. I don’t think there’s any doubt about that.”
— CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin on PBS’s Tavis Smiley, November 2.
Avoid Scandals, Vote Hillary
“[Ex-NYC police commissioner Bernard] Kerik’s legal problems could mean political problems for Giuliani and the inevitable questions of the presidential candidate: What did he know and when did he know it?...(to Kerik) There are people who say that you, forgive me, are a poster child as to why Giuliani shouldn’t be President, because of your own troubles.”
— Reporter Byron Pitts in a story about Kerik’s indictment, November 9 CBS Evening News.
Beware Emperor Bushohito
“The presidency of George W. Bush has now devolved into a criminal conspiracy to cover the ass of George W. Bush....Because, Mr. Bush, in the seven years of your nightmare presidency, this whole string of events has been transformed. From its beginning as the most neglectful protection ever of the lives and the safety of the American people into the most efficient and cynical exploitation of tragedy for political gain in this country’s history. And then to the giddying prospect that maybe you could do what the military fanatics did in Japan in the 1930s and remake a nation into a fascist state so efficient and so self-sustaining that the fascism itself would be nearly invisible.”
— MSNBC Countdown host Keith Olbermann in a November 5 “Special Comment.”
Andrea’s Acid Flashback
Brian Williams: “While we have you here tonight, a little bit of political hubbub today at the State Department, your usual beat in Washington.”
Andrea Mitchell: “There were a couple of hundred diplomats — this is extraordinary — they rebelled against being ordered to Vietnam. Basically, 40 of them will have to go to Vietnam or lose their — excuse me, go to Iraq. This is the first time this has happened since the Vietnam War.”
— NBC Nightly News, October 31.
Bushies Have Ruined Christmas
“American parents are upset, they’re frightened, they feel like their Halloween and their Christmas is now ruined. They don’t know what to buy. Members of Congress are calling for your resignation. Are you going to resign?... What’s your response to those who think you are just simply too cozy with the manufacturers?“
— Co-host Julie Chen asking Consumer Product Safety Commission chief Nancy Nord about tainted toys from China, CBS’s Early Show, October 31.
Censored, Anesthetized America
Actress Meryl Streep: “Even though we have the freest society, supposedly, I think many of us are afraid to speak up. And we vilify the people that do speak up. You’re told you’re not supporting the troops.”
Actor/director Robert Redford: “If you’re against us, you’re not patriotic.”
Streep: “So to me this film is about the difficulty of standing up and saying what you think. Standing up is very, very difficult....Americans have been anesthetized by good fortune.”
— From an interview with Time’s Richard Corliss about Redford’s anti-war film, Lions for Lambs, and posted on the magazine’s Web site November 2.
Media Weakness = Nazi Takeover?
“Change is precipitated by outside events, big cataclysms like 9/11 and Katrina, that cause the public to wipe the gunk out of its eyes. One thing that really bothers me is when the media cedes its responsibility. When the government said, ‘you can’t photograph coffins coming home from Iraq,’ that was a clear abrogation of the right to a free press. And the press rolled over. Look at how the German people have lived, for all these years, with a legacy of ‘How could you let that happen?’ We might be living with that kind of legacy in the next fifty years.”
— Lions for Lambs star Meryl Streep in an interview with Rolling Stone’s Peter Travers that appeared in the magazine’s November 15 issue.
Ruing Bush’s Police State
Author Laura Ingraham: “It’s a free country though, right?”
Co-host Whoopi Goldberg: “Well, it used to be. I used believe that it was, and then a lot of-”
Ingraham: “You don’t think that it’s a free country?”
Goldberg: “Not as free as it was when I was a kid.”...
Co-host Joy Behar: “Nobody was tapping into my phone when I was watching Howdy Doody.”
— Exchange on ABC’s The View, November 12.
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