Notable Quotables - 12/11/2000
Our Fairy Tale Came True!
"It's a modern fairy tale. From First Lady entertaining 20,000 guests at 26 Christmas parties to just another freshman Senator today arriving for orientation in an
SUV, no limo. From America's finest antiques to unpacking boxes in a basement office. From foie gras to Senate bean soup. The Senator-elect goes to the Capitol."
NBC reporter Andrea Mitchell on Hillary Clinton's Senate orientation, December 5
Nightly News.
Hillary, You Are Our Hero
"What are you most looking forward to? Obviously getting to work, but when you think of the array of possibilities before you?"
"Let me ask you for your reaction to a statement Trent Lott made recently. Because it was quite interesting. He said, I'll tell you one thing when this Hillary gets to the Senate... she'll be one of a hundred and we won't let her forget it. Didn't sound as if he was putting out the welcome mat for you, did he?"
"You obviously enjoyed the domestic aspects of your role as First Lady, but wasn't it hard to balance being an activist First Lady and the responsibilities of a more traditional First Lady?"
Katie Couric to Hillary Clinton, live from the White House to promote Hillary's new book on White House entertaining, November 28
Today.
General Gore on Horseback
"You know, last week, the first couple of weeks of election day, Al Gore stayed mostly in the command center of the U.S. Naval Observatory....huddled behind his computer console, e-mailing members of Congress, reporters, really directing his legal fight from behind the scenes. But now the General's decided to go out on horseback and really lead the charge himself."
ABC's George Stephanopoulos, November 29 Good Morning America.
Ashleigh and Al's First Date?
"The last time I was this excited about a two-minute warning for a telephone call was when I was waiting for my prom date to call and invite me to the prom and I'm not going to tell you how many years ago that was."
MSNBC anchor Ashleigh Banfield to reporter Norah O'Donnell just before a November 27 photo-op public conference call amongst Al Gore, Joe Lieberman, Dick Gephardt and Tom
Daschle.
No Honeymoon Here
"In recent days and weeks we have seen your running mate Mr. Cheney holding news conferences, opening the transition office, moving things forward. We have not seen a great deal of you. Who's in charge?"
"If in that first meeting with Mr. Greenspan, the Chairman of the Fed, he says to you, 'Mr. President, I think an across the board tax cut is probably bad for the economy.' Will you listen?"
Scott Pelley to George W. Bush, Dec. 5 60 Minutes II.
Rather Rallies for Gore
"Nineteen days after the presidential election, Florida's Republican Secretary of State is about to announce the winner as she sees it and she decrees it of the states potentially decisive 25 electoral votes. Katherine Harris will officially certify the states election returns...The believed certification-as the Republican Secretary of Stat sees it- is coming just hours after a court ordered deadline for counties to submit their hand count and recount totals."
Dan Rather during a CBS News special report on the November 26 official certification of Floridas vote.
"What about the argument, which I'm sure you've heard, that Vice President Gore is continuing to contest the election because he is absolutely convinced that more Floridians went to the polls to vote for him than did for George Bush and that the proof of that is how hard you and others are fighting on behalf of George Bush to stop the counting?"
Dan Rather to Bush lawyer Ben Ginsberg, November 27 CBS Evening
News.
Gore's Fantasy Math
"Gore's lawyers claim Bush's 537-vote lead would vanish if all votes in these places were counted properly. The manual recount in Palm Beach rejected by the Secretary of State would net Gore 215 votes, a partial recount in Miami-Dade would give Gore another 160 votes. In Nassau County the Gore campaign claims 50 votes for the Vice President were discounted illegally. Even more significant, they argue, approximately 4,000 contested ballots were never counted in Palm Beach. There the Gore campaign estimates a net gain of 800 votes. And the 9,000 ballots never recounted in Miami-Dade. Here a net gain of 600 votes. By the Democrats' math, Al Gore should have finished at least 1,288 votes ahead of George W. Bush."
Reporter Byron Pitts, Nov. 27 CBS Evening News.
Whining Over Palm Beach
"Why did you decide not to give Palm Beach County the extra time, the just couple of extra hours that it asked for to finish its count, and then decide to throw out their partial recount? I mean, after all, the judge had said the votes could come in at 5 p.m. Sunday or 9 a.m. Monday....But doesn't it disenfranchise voters in Palm Beach County not to take the results that they handed in?"
ABC's Charles Gibson to Florida canvassing board member Bob Crawford, Nov. 27
Good Morning America.
"Lets talk about Palm Beach County if we could for a moment, Mr. Crawford. As you know, that county was denied an extension and submitted its recount results at 7:08 pm, two hours and eight minutes after the deadline. Now they netted, apparently, about 200 votes for Gore, but those votes were not included in the final tally. Why wasn't that deadline extended to accommodate the Palm Beach recount?"
NBC's Katie Couric to Crawford, November 27 Today.
The Shiite "Fix" Is In
"Let me come to a point that I have heard some people express, by no means a majority of people I've talked to. Some say, listen, quote, 'Is the fix in in Florida? You've got a Republican Governor, you've got not just a majority but a dominant Republican state legislature and a Republican Secretary of State.' And under those circumstances, so the quote goes, there's no way Al Gore can win this."
Dan Rather about the Florida legislature naming electors, to state Senator Daniel Webster, November 28
CBS Evening News.
"You know, it's like Newt Gingrich revisited. Why they would want to go out and before they need to, to cast a vote to disenfranchise people in their own state is beyond me. Its a Shi'ite move down there, really."
Time's Margaret Carlson, Dec. 2 CNN Capital Gang.
Anchors Salve Gore's Wounds
"Do you think in many ways, sir, you're the victim of circumstance now?"
Peter Jennings to Al Gore, Nov. 29 World News Tonight.
"Do you or do you not believe that the Bush forces are being if not dishonest, at least not all together straightforward, by moving to a transition, by being seen and in effect saying, 'Look, we won the election, George Bush is the next President and we're moving to it'?"
Dan Rather to Al Gore, Nov. 29 CBS Evening News.
Gore = Impartiality, Honesty
"In the dictionary, 'fair' is a word with several meanings. Mr. Gore probably prefers 'marked by impartiality and honesty.' But Mr. Bush might like 'conforming with the established rules.' Could both be right? Gore demanding every vote be counted, Bush answering they have been. Both men, though, unable to see the fairness of each other's point of view."
NBC reporter Roger O'Neill, November 30 NBC Nightly News.
Gore's Not Craven, He's Like Us
"To say that this is purely craven, I think that's not looking at it quite the right way. When you think about what both of these men have been through, campaigning for 18 months is an awfully hard job, and if you really believe that you won and it comes down to taking another month, another six weeks to say, let me fight out this case, I think any of us, if we were in his shoes, would probably fight that battle."
Time reporter Tamala Edwards on MSNBC, Dec. 4.
Alter, the Sorest Sore Loser
"If Bush is elected and it's proved on a hand count that Gore actually carried Florida (not to mention the popular vote), what will the country say? 'Ooops' isn't going to cut it....However agreeable and successful he turns out to be, the new President is doomed to be seen by many Americans as a bastard."
Jonathan Alter, December 11 Newsweek.
Less Than the DNC Gives CBS
"Does Fox News get money directly from the GOP or does it have to launder it first for the sake of the FCC?"
Time staff writer Joel Stein to Bill OReilly, host of Fox News Channel's
The O'Reilly Factor, December 11 issue.
Post-Election Bias Admitted
Don Imus: "What if Gore had won and Bush, what if the roles were reversed? How would, I wouldn't want to include you in this, but how would the liberal weenies of the news media be treating this if the roles were reversed?"
Newsweek reporter Howard Fineman: "Oh, my God. Are you kidding? That George Bush was a crybaby, that he was the spoiled son of a failed President. You know, you could just hear, the personal attacks on Bush would be just absolutely vicious."
Radio's Imus in the Morning simulcast on MSNBC, November 28.
