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
