Lost in Space
"Its story line could be a
Republican parable about 1995 America: A marvelous vessel loses
its power and speeds toward extinction, until it's saved by a
team of heroic white men. I can imagine the political
commercials in which Hanks morphs into Phil Gramm. Although the
movie's publicity trumpets its historical accuracy, the movie
itself celebrates the paradisiacal America invoked by Ronald
Reagan and Pat Buchanan - an America where men were men, women
were subservient, and people of color kept out of the damn
way."
- John Powers writing about Apollo 13 in The
Washington Post Arts section, July 9.
"As we speak, up there
somewhere, an American space shuttle has docked at a Russian
space station and they're swapping crews. Hard to believe we
jumped into space in the first place to beat those Russians to
the moon; that 100 million frogs died in high school science
labs between 1958 and 1970 because Sputnik made us look
bad."
- CBS Sunday Morning critic John Leonard on Apollo
13, July 2.
Stand Down, Margaret
Reporter Jamie Gangel:
"When pressed, Thatcher does say the only way she would go
back to Downing Street was if there was some sort of national
emergency, which she says she hopes will never happen."
Bryant Gumbel: "I'm sure
there are millions of others who hope that will never happen,
too."
- Exchange from Today, June 30.
Consider Yourself Warned
"Next week on ABC's World
News Tonight, a series of reports about our environment
which will tell you precisely what the new Congress has in mind:
the most frontal assault on the environment in 25 years. Is this
what the country wants?"
- Peter Jennings in an ABC promo aired during the July 9
This Week with David Brinkley.
It's Not A Shift to the Right, Just Toward White Intolerance
"But is this truly
conclusive evidence the country is moving to the right? Or is it
just the latest reflection of white majority impatience with and
indifference to individual rights and the plight of the less
fortunate? Public opinion polls don't show a drastic shift to
the right."
- ABC reporter John Martin on America in the wake of
1994 Republican victories and conservative Supreme Court
decisions, June 29 Nightline.
Democracy Through Marxism
"It seems the flat tax sort
of runs counter to what I thought was sort of implicit in the
code, which was sort of general progressivity, you call it. The
more you earn, the more you pay. And in a democracy, I thought
there was sort of a general notion that, you know, a little
flattening out of the income."
- Chicago Tribune Washington Bureau Chief James
Warren on CNN's Capital Gang Sunday, July 9.
So Popular She Lost
"Despite her soaring
popularity and role as queen of the Democratic Party, she was
ousted from office in the nation's sweep to the right. Today
more than half a year since her surprising defeat, she remains
as popular as ever....Six months after her defeat, the light of
this Lone Star legend doesn't seem to have dimmed one bit."
- NBC weekend Today co-host Giselle Fernandez
in a June 18 profile of former Texas Governor Ann Richards.
Guess He Voted Libertarian
"I spent four years abroad
in the mid-1980s, and though I voted against Ronald Reagan
twice, I often found myself leaping to his defense, sometimes
because I thought he was right on some foreign policy issue,
other times just because he was `our' President. In certain
contexts, attacks on Reagan had nothing to do with who he was or
even what policies he was pursuing, and everything to do with
what country he led. So you didn't sit silently while he was
assailed, even if you would have voted against him a third time,
given the chance."
- Former Washington Post and New York Times
reporter E.J. Dionne, July 4 Post column.
Yes
"Whatever the motive, the
charges of a liberal press aren't persuasive. First, if the
press is all-powerful and so liberal, why has the country moved
steadily more conservative over the past quarter century? Would
anyone argue seriously that Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton
received better news treatment than Ronald Reagan?"
- Wall Street Journal Executive Washington
Editor Al Hunt in his June 22 column.
When You Make a Few Million, What's Two Billion?
"What should be cut that
will save money? Or is this really a joke? I mean, after you cut
it all, you're saving, you know, two billion dollars, which is
nothing these days, is it?"
- Good Morning America substitute host Barbara
Walters on congressional perks, June 20.
That Kooky, Discredited Tenth Amendment
"The Constitution is still
in effect, naturally. But in the May decision striking down term
limits a forceful minority on the Supreme Court seemed intent on
radically reinterpreting it as a compact among sovereign states
rather than the people - an inherently separatist view that has
been out of favor at least since the Union won the Civil
War."
- Newsweek Senior Editor Jerry
Adler, July 10 issue.
Franklin the Great
"He's one of the top three
Presidents, and perhaps the greatest President....I think he was
a great President. He left a great legacy. And I would like to
think that the things that he stood for, that Americans deep in
their hearts still feel the same way."
- CBS anchor/reporter Bob Schieffer on CNBC's Tim
Russert, June 12.
Not Foster's Fault?
"I don't think this is
anything that anybody has a right to be very proud of. I think
you have a very good and decent man who's going back to
Nashville now. He can be comforted by the fact that all of this
had nothing much to do with him. It was just politics and a case
of White House bungling."
- Bob Schieffer on CBS This Morning, June 22.
A Little Jealous?
"All of this might be
amusing - look at that wild and crazy Speaker of ours - if
Gingrich weren't the second most powerful person in the country.
Attention-deficit disorder and franchising your name while it's
hot are troubling characteristics in someone who is
speed-cutting $200 billion from such programs as Medicaid, Head
Start, Amtrak, public television, water quality, and air traffic
control. Many citizens don't think these cuts make sense at all,
but all citizens should wonder whether it isn't reckless to make
them while making a personal fortune at the same time. Being
Speaker used to be a full-time job."
- Time columnist Margaret Carlson, July 3
issue.
- L.
Brent Bozell III, Publisher;
-Brent H. Baker, Tim Graham; Editors
- James Forbes, Andrew Gabron, Mark Honig, Steve Kaminski,
Gesele Rey, Clay Waters; Media Analysts
- Kathleen Ruff, Circulation Manager;
-Eugene Eliason, Melissa Gordon; Interns