Notable Quotables - 11/26/1990

 

Vermont's Mainstream Socialist


"Bernie Sanders, former mayor of Burlington, wants to reorder the nation's priorities in favor of ordinary people....Whether they like him or not, most here would agree that socialist Bernie Sanders is no fringe politician, and his margin of victory would attest to that. He drew that support by promising to cut defense spending and tax the rich, and use the money for national health care, the environment, and education."
- ABC reporter Bob Jamieson, November 11 World News Tonight.

 

Still Campaigning for Gantt


"For liberals who had hoped to retire the Senate's most outspoken reactionary, the result was a harsh disappointment... Gantt, 47, presented what he called a 'noble agenda.' It amounted to a genteel strain of liberalism emphasizing improved education, health care, and environmental measures."
- Time Deputy Washington Bureau Chief Laurence Barrett in an article headlined "Race-Baiting Wins Again," November 19.

"In a year that has had some of the dirtiest, the sleaziest, the most misleading ads ever, it's hard to pick the very worst, but here are a couple that the experts chose. North Carolina's Jesse Helms, who battled a black opponent, last week overtly introduced the most divisive issue of the contest: race....The truth is Gantt supported the vetoed civil rights bill which he argued specifically warned against quotas."
- ABC reporter Jackie Judd on Nightline, November 6.

 

How Many?


"Bush Orders 200,000 More Troops to Gulf"
- Washington Post, November 9.

"150,00 More U.S. Troops to Gulf"
- Philadelphia Inquirer, same day.

"120,000 more troops ordered to gulf"
- USA Today, same day.

"100,000 to the Gulf"
- Newsday, same day.

 

More Pot Shots


"Incapable of believing his country wrong, or himself wrong, Reagan encouraged his fellows citizens in that same belief. If he gave us a renewed self-respect, he led us beyond it to the conviction that there is a free lunch and we are entitled to it; the price we will end up paying for that little lesson in self-indulgence is only now beginning to become clear, as is the understanding that we will be paying it for generations, if not until kingdom come."
- Washington Post book critic Jonathan Yardley reviewing Reagan's book An American Life, November 4.

"He makes no effort to square the reality of the huge budget deficit he left with his messianic fervor of tax cuts."
- Newsweek Washington reporter Eleanor Clift on Reagan's book, November 19.

"Reading the former President's memoir, I found it impossible to escape the thought that a better title would be The Mannequin Speaks....To what extent do we prefer myth to reality, the comfort of strong convictions at the expense of facts? To what degree do we become complicit in believing black is white, if we are emotionally attached to a politician who tells us it is so? Do we crave a king who is beyond criticism and oblivious to it?"
- New York Times White House reporter Maureen Dowd, November 18 "Book Review."

"In the 1980s, the Reagan Years, the amount of government money spent to build low-income housing was cut drastically. Then the homeless began to appear on streets and in doorsteps and housing became a visible, human problem."
- Garrick Utley anchoring the November 3 NBC Nightly News.

 

Referendum on Reaganomics?


"There seems to be an anti-tax sentiment, and yet everybody wants all of the services they have always had. Is this an election that said, sort of a reaffirmation of Reagan economics - we want government on the cheap?"
- ABC Good Morning America co-host Charles Gibson, November 7.

"This election, it seems to me, was a reaffirmation of Reaganomics. We want to repair the infrastructure. We want good education. We want the social services of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. But woe betide any politician who tries to exercise leadership, George, and perhaps institute taxes to pay for those things."
- Gibson interviewing George Will, November 12.

"Last week's elections demonstrated that all too many voters still believe the old fantasy of Reaganomics that taxes can be cut while government programs grow. Bush ran for the presidency on that very notion in 1988. When he agreed to higher taxes this year, he was implicitly admitting that he was wrong."
- Time Washington Bureau Chief Stanley Cloud, November 19.

 

Civil Wrongs


"The President's veto of the 1990 civil rights bill is an outrageous, cowardly retreat from a needed assault on economic bigotry and a cave-in to political expediency....Bush is saying loud and clear that if nothing else, the Republican Party can still stand for bigotry."
- USA Today Inquiry Editor Barbara Reynolds, October 26.

 

Balance at Turner Broadcasting


"The 'balanced' report, in some cases, may no longer be the most effective, or even the most informative. Indeed, it can be debilitating. Can we afford to wait for our audience to come to its own conclusions? I think not."
- Teya Ryan, Senior Producer of Turner Broadcasting's CNN-produced Network Earth series, in the Summer 1990 Gannett Center Journal.

"The program is sufficiently authoritative and fair in its presentation so that we don't think a panel is necessary to follow this program. We believe that the program is good enough that it stands on its own and that viewers can make up their own minds."
- Turner Broadcasting Executive VP Bob Levi on the upcoming December 7 TBS special Abortion Denied: Shattering Young Women's Lives, November 16 Los Angeles Times.

 

Primitive Warrior Culture


"In many ways, in outlook and behavior the U.S. has begun to act like a primitive warrior culture. We seem to believe that leadership is expressed, in no small part, by a willingness to cause the deaths of others....Our collective fantasies center on mayhem, cruelty, and violent death. Loving images of the human body - especially of bodies seeking pleasure or expressing love - inspire us with the urge to censor."
- Time essayist Barbara Ehrenreich, October 15.


Casey's Friends and Associates


"With the help of the Jesuits, he discovered his social conscience at Fordham University, then buried it when he decided to go for the big money. A former associate testified that Casey 'never saw an ethical dimension to business. Is it illegal? If not then you can do it.'...After Casey's funeral, one of his friends recalled that 'Bill believed in the American flag, the Catholic Church, and nothing else.' History might have been altered if he had broadened his faith just a little, to include the Constitution."
- Time Contributing Editor Stefan Kanfer reviewing Joseph Persico's Casey, November 5.

 

Novel Approach to Gun Control


"Absent the invention of an airborne gun-seeking magnet, these deadly weapons will continue to end up in the wrong hands."
- Newsweek reporter Kevin Krajick on semiautomatic weapons, November 19.

 

- L. Brent Bozell III; Publisher
- Brent H. Baker, Tim Graham; Editors
- Callista Gould, Jim Heiser, Marian Kelley, Gerard Scimeca; Media Analysts
- Jennifer Hardebeck; Administrative Assistant