Notable Quotables - 11/24/2003
Howard Dean? He's No Liberal
"In some ways, he is a closet centrist."
-Washington Post columnist and former reporter E.J. Dionne discussing Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean on CNN's
Capital Gang, November 15.
"He didn't govern as a liberal. He's not really a liberal."
-Wall Street Journal Executive Washington Editor Al Hunt, agreeing with Dionne on the same show.
Arnold's Awful Tax Rollback
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger: "I will sign Executive Order Number One which will repeal the 300 percent increase in the car tax."
Brian Rooney: "He signed that order within the hour. So after running for Governor because the state had an enormous deficit, Governor Schwarzenegger's first official act was to plunge California another $4 billion further into debt."
-ABC's
World News Tonight, November 17.
"With a stroke of the pen he cost the state tens and tens of millions of dollars in that car tax money."
-CNN's Aaron Brown on the November 17
NewsNight.
"Schwarzenegger takes office and goes right to work with a big tax cut adding to the states huge budget deficit."
-Tom Brokaw on the November 17
NBC Nightly News.
Spending Cuts Are Unthinkable
"So what would you do about those deficits if you were Treasury Secretary today? What taxes would you raise?"
-ABC's George Stephanopoulos to former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin on
This Week, November 16.
War Threatens Welfare State
Dan Rather: "President Bush presided at a White House ceremony today that underscored just how costly the war in Iraq has become and how costly it may remain for the foreseeable future...."
John Roberts: "With a stroke of his pen, President Bush committed more money to Iraq than he spends on any domestic program....All that spending has the nation's top money man worried that the bill will come back to bite Americans. Alan Greenspan said today the longterm effects of deepening debt 'could have notable, destabilizing effects on the economy' and put at risk Social Security and Medicare benefits for retiring baby boomers."
-CBS Evening News, November 6.
Iraq War Worse than Vietnam
"Reading through some of the
Face the Nation transcripts from the Vietnam era the other day, I was struck by how much what officials said then sounds like what the government has been saying lately. No matter how bad the news from Vietnam was, official after official came on Face the Nation to say progress was being made, the press just wasn't reporting it. From the day the war turned bad in Iraq, you could take the words that were said back then and put them into the mouths of todays administration spokesmen and never notice the difference."
-CBS's Bob Schieffer on
Face the Nation, November 16.
"Forty Americans have been killed in the last 10 days, over 400 killed since the war began - more than the number lost during the first three years of Vietnam. Would you concede that things are very dangerous and continue to be extremely messy and difficult in Iraq?"
-NBC's Katie Couric to Ambassador Paul Bremer on the November 17
Today. The number of U.S. troops in Vietnam in the first three years was 17,000, a small fraction of the 130,000 presently serving in Iraq.
Bush Made U.S. a "Pariah Nation"
"America is now something of a rogue state, a pariah nation. People repeatedly say it isn't Americans we don't like, it is just Bush. He pushes hot buttons. Bush has so much to do with this rather stupendous fall-off in American popularity. It is quite amazing to think where we were the day after September 11 and how much of that goodwill has been squandered."
-New York Times London correspondent Warren Hoge, as cited in a Nov. 13 Reuters dispatch by Paul Majendie.
Even Iraqis Hate Media Bias
MSNBC's Bob Arnot: "This is one of the most beautiful mosques anywhere in the world. It's the main mosque in the holy city of Kazimayah, third most religious city in Iraq. We've been invited here by the ayatollah. Why? He is furious at the press coverage. He says not only American television, but Arabic satellite TV, such as Al-Jazeera and the Abu Dhabi station, have misportrayed the great success that is Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein....
Everyone we talked to agrees the Arab media is not telling the truth about what's happening here, and Al-Jazeera tops the list. What do you think of Al-Jazeera?"
Unidentified Iraqi man: "I hate them!"
-MSNBC's
Hardball with Chris Matthews, Nov. 12.
ABC: Senate Wasted Thousands...
"Beginning tonight, Republican and Democratic Senators face off in marathon debate over judicial nominations that could last 30 hours. Well, Senator Daschle's staff did some math and learned that at $540 for each Congressional Record page, at a rate of six-pages per hour, the 30-hour debate will cost taxpayers $97,200, and thats just the cost of the printing."
-ABC's Robin Roberts on
Good Morning America, November 12.
...While Failing to Spend Billions
"Republicans want to tie the Senate in knots because Democrats are blocking six of President Bush's most conservative nominees to the federal appeals court....The stunts are consuming the Senate, even though Republican leaders have not produced legislation providing Medicare prescription drug coverage, an energy bill, and bills to fund the government next year."
-ABC's Linda Douglass on the November 12
World News Tonight.
Exploiting Private Lynch
"Do you think that somehow, this, your rescue was, was manipulated by the government in order to, sort of, gin up support for this war?"
-Katie Couric to Jessica Lynch on the Nov. 12
Today.
Paula Zahn: "She [Lynch] feels quite used by the U.S. government, does she not?...She has also made it quite clear she's resentful of the fact, is she not, that this imagery was somehow used to - I guess, she has alleged, to support the war effort?"
Time's Nancy Gibbs: "I think that may be going too far.... She says the idea that this was staged or this was phony or this was all for propaganda is crazy."
-Exchange on CNN's
Paula Zahn Now, November 10.
"We" Democrats Did Okay
"If you look at what happened in Philadelphia, if you look at some of the state senate seats in New Jersey, you can, down this way and toward Virginia, Democrats did pretty well. We took control, not only in terms of keeping control of the mayoral seat in Philadelphia, but took control of some seats in New Jersey, so, took control I should say of the state senate in New Jersey. So, there were some victories for the Democrats."
-NPR correspondent Juan Williams reviewing the results of the November 4 elections the next day on FNC's
Special Report with Brit Hume.
Will Rush Feel Bill Clinton's Pain?
"Empathy has never been one of Rush's strongest suits. Do you detect anything in his broadcast yesterday that would suggest that Rush is now going to become a kinder, gentler Rush Limbaugh?"
-CBS's Harry Smith to media expert Robert Thompson on the
Early Show, November 18, the day after Limbaugh ended five weeks of treatment for drug addiction.
"I certainly have heard him being very hard on the weaknesses of human beings, particularly obviously Bill Clinton, and it seems to me something like that has to change."
-ABC's Charles Gibson to Bill Bennett on the November 18
Good Morning America.
Conservatives Killed Free Speech
"Does [it] bother you at all that one group in America, or many Americans...can basically exert this kind of political pressure and create an environment where, perhaps, free speech is not exercised?"
-Katie Couric to former Reagan campaign manager Ed Rollins on the November 6
Today discussing CBSs cancellation of their anti-Reagan mini-series.
Surely He Jests
"It's admirable for reporters to be skeptical, provided they're not cynical. But I'm not any more skeptical about Republican administrations than I am about Democratic administrations."
-Peter Jennings, as quoted by
St. Petersburg Times television critic Eric Deggans in a November 18 story.
Bill Moyers = Smart TV
"TiVo television recorders allow viewers to replay programs and skip commercials....Fanatical TiVo users complain that their TiVo quickly fills up with shows they cant bear to delete, from self-improving educational fare like Now with Bill Moyers and Chimps: So Like Us, to less cerebral programs such as
Sex and the City."
-Reuters' Elinor Mills Abreu in a November 11 dispatch.
Couric's Mom a Condom Queen
"[Katie Couric] is equally admiring of her mother, who was a homemaker and Planned Parenthood volunteer when Couric was growing up. 'She's clever and smart and she's a great artist,' says her daughter. 'She's very savvy.' Though 'she'll be embarrassed to hear me say this,' Couric goes on to relate that when AIDS first appeared in the press, her mother 'bought a lot of stock in condom companies.'"
-From Jennifer Allen's cover story about Couric in the November issue of
Good Housekeeping.
