Notable Quotables - 11/29/1999
Contradictory Conservatism
"Bush is using this term
'compassionate conservative' as he campaigns, which is an interesting
juxtaposition of two seemingly contradictory terms."
- ABC Good Morning America co-host Charles Gibson to columnist William
Safire, November 18.
Bryant on the Barricades
Jesse Jackson: "The issue is not
so much black and white as it is wrong and right, an issue of judgment."
Bryant Gumbel: "Reverend Jackson, how can you say that when all of those
being expelled are black and all those voting to punish them are white?"
- Exchange about the expulsions of students for fighting in Decatur,
Illinois, November 9 The Early Show.
"Speaking of doing the right
thing, lets move to the UN issue. Republicans are tying release of back
funds to anti-abortion language. To your mind, is that issue worth losing the
U.S. presence at the U.N.?"
"But are you comfortable with our national obligations, our national
prestige, being held hostage by the most conservative wing of your
party?"
- Gumbel to House Republican Conference Chairman J.C. Watts, November 10 The
Early Show.
Reagan, Thatcher Deep? Please
"Hillsdale College is
supposed to be different: a liberal arts college where liberals are unwanted,
where Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan are regarded as heroic deep
thinkers, prayer is encouraged and morality is taught alongside grammar."
- NBC's Jim Avila in a story on the sex scandal at Hillsdale College,
November 19 Today.
Congress Wasnt Liberal Enough
"On issue after issue,
from gun control to overhauling campaign finance law to reforming HMOs and
giving seniors access to prescription drugs, polls showed the public wanted
action. But Congress, feeling the hot breath of the lobby, couldn't find a
way to act....This one will go into the history books as the Congress that
killed a nuclear test ban treaty most of the world wanted, but couldn't
figure out how to do much else."
- Final comments from Bob Schieffer at the end of CBS's Face the Nation,
November 21.
What Across-the-Board "Cut"?
"Today, the President
backed down and agreed in principle to a small across-the-board spending cut
for all federal agencies."
- Peter Jennings, November 17 ABC World News Tonight.
"Republicans added a
last-minute measure on dairy pricing that would increase the price of milk and
that could be a budget deal wrecker. It came after the President accepted a
small across-the-board cut in the federal budget demanded by
Republicans."
- Dan Rather, November 17 CBS Evening News.
Antonio Mora: "We are six
weeks into the fiscal year, but it was only late last night that a final
budget deal was reached. It calls for an across-the-board spending cut of less
than half a percent. President Clinton received word while in Istanbul.
ABC's Terry Moran is there. Good morning, Terry. How did the President react
to the budget deal?"
Terry Moran: "Well, Antonio, the President is declaring victory, despite
the fact that he accepted that small across-the-board spending cut, a
budgeting device that he'd previously described as a mindless meat cleaver
approach. But administration officials are saying that it's so small, 0.38
percent, that it amounts to symbolic victory for Republicans, and crucially
that it allows agencies the flexibility to determine where and how they want
to cut."
- Exchange on ABC's Good Morning America, November 18.
"The Republicans got their
across-the-board budget cut, but it was slenderized, and it wasn't all the
way across the board."
- CNN's Bob Franken on Inside Politics, November 18.
Reality Check:
"Consider the assertion
that the Republicans proposed a one percent across-the-board spending cut. If
you look at the nuts and bolts of that budget, spending programs other than
Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, you will discover not a spending cut
of one percent, but a hike on the order of five percent, or twice the
inflation rate, and furthermore, a budget that exceeds by 10 percent the
budget limits enacted just last year."
- Fox News Sunday host Tony Snow, November 14.
Kerry, The Ultraliberal "Centrist"
"On Saturday, Gore will
get the endorsement of a centrist Democrat, Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.)."
- From November 20 Washington Post news story by Ceci Connolly. Kerry
earned a 95 percent rating in 1996 from the left-wing group Americans for
Democratic Action and a 5 from the American Conservative Union.
Whoops! Bush Leaned Right
"I thought he made some
unforced errors politically. I don't think he had to say that Antonin Scalia
was his favorite Supreme Court Justice. I mean, it's not like Bush was
really under great pressure from Gary Bauer. You know, it just didn't make
any sense for him to do that. Nor do I think he had to, you know, rule out
meeting with the Log Cabin Republicans, again, because he's not under a lot of
pressure from the right. And I think those may have been two unschooled,
unrehearsed moments and you know, I think he messed them up."
- Newsweeks Howard Fineman discussing Bush's Meet the Press
interview on MSNBC's Imus in the Morning, November 23.
Steve Forbes, Hard-Core Slasher
"The [1996] ads defined
Forbes as a slasher. This time, he has yet to attack another candidate. But
the threat of a hard-line conservative millionaire buying wave after wave of
attack ads still scares more moderate Republicans. The Republican Leadership
Council, a centrist group, has spent $100,000 on this friendly warning."
- NPR reporter Peter Overby on an ad demanding Forbes play nice, November 17 All
Things Considered.
Mr. Starr, Admit You're a Zealot
"Judge, I wanted to give
you an independent opening opportunity here and the question is this: when you
are alone with your thoughts and memories and you look back, can you identify
in all truthfulness a moment of zealotry, two moments of zealotry? Can you
identify a moment where, perhaps you snapped yourself out of it, but for a
short time this became a hunt?"
"Do you understand now, did you understand at the time, looking at the
coverage of yourself, perhaps you saw some of it, that the perception widely
held, not among everyone, was that you were going after a case, that was at
the end of the day, about a middle-aged man telling kind of run-of-the-mill
lies to protect a non-intercourse sexual affair?"
- Two questions from MSNBC's Brian Williams to Ken Starr, November 17 The
News with Brian Williams.
Rivera's Assertiveness Training
Geraldo Rivera: "They used
tactics against you that they generally reserve for mobsters. They used
tactics against your family. Aren't you angry?"
Webster Hubbell: "I was angry, yeah, I was angry."
Rivera: "Get angry!"
Hubbell: "I was angry, but my faith teaches me to be angry, but then to
forgive."
Rivera: "All right, suspend your faith for two minutes here. Are you
really, you must be pissed off, Webb."
- Exchange about Hubbell's dealings with Starr, November 12 Rivera Live.
Yeah, and Some Miss Hitler
"It is probably hard for
most Americans to imagine anyone feeling nostalgic about living behind the
Wall. It may also be hard to imagine that anyone in the Western part of
Germany would miss the Wall either. But miss it, some people do."
- ABC's Peter Jennings introducing a Berlin Wall story on the November 9 World
News Tonight.
Boys Are Different...And Inferior
Cokie Roberts: "They
really are different, boys and girls. You know, for a long time there was this
theory that we're really all the same, and it's just the way we're
socialized. But the minute you have, you had three girls...And then a boy. It
was different?"
Tipper Gore: "I can tell you then. I also did graduate classes in child
psychology, and I was also a feminist and I still am, so I'm really
confused. I threw all the theories out the window and I went, there are
innate differences...There just are."
Roberts: "He was suddenly tearing around the house."
Gore: "I remember coming into the room after finding, you know, his
sisters all in the middle playing when they were the same age and looking
around: where is he? Well he's at the top of the closet....He's
climbed up this high."
Roberts: "And it's terrifying. I was lucky that I had a boy first, so
the girl was a real treat."
Gore: "Oh, exactly. But child development theorists who have studied this
have told us the same thing, that boys are just more action-oriented from the
get-go."
Roberts: "Less capable."
Gore, laughing: "I think women are smarter."
Roberts, laughing: "Yeah."
- November 14 ABC's This Week.
Publisher: L.
Brent Bozell
Editors: Brent H. Baker, Tim Graham
Media Analysts: Jessica Anderson, Brian Boyd,
Geoffrey Dickens, Mark Drake, Paul Smith, Brad Wilmouth
Research Associate: Kristina Sewell
Interns: Ken Shepherd
