Embassy Bombing: Blame GOP
"As for beefing up
security at U.S. embassies around the world, CBSs Sharyl
Attkisson reports U.S. officials are trying to move quickly
despite drastic budget cutbacks by Congress in recent years.
Attkisson's sources tell her the State Department is now being
inundated with calls from American embassies wanting security
inspections and other help."
-
Dan Rather on the August 13 CBS Evening News.
Rivera's Panty Raid Ravings
"He did something
terrible. He cheated on his wife and he lied about it. That's
what they have after four years and $40 million. Why wasn't
that money spent to make our embassies bomb-proof?"
-
Geraldo Rivera in an MSNBC Web site chat session to promote his
new second CNBC show Upfront Tonight, August 18.
"Bill Clinton is paying his own legal fees. Guess who's
paying Ken Starr's? Almost overlooked in the midst of the
enormous attention being paid to next Monday's showdown, is
the fact that the independent counsel tonight is in real peril
himself, profoundly threatened by Judge Norma Holloway
Johnson's decision that Mr. Starr show cause why he should not
be held in contempt for what the judge feels is a pattern of
allegedly illegal leaks of secret grand jury information....As
to the question of whose paying his legal tab: you and me. It
will be piled onto the tens of millions his panty raid has so
far chalked up."
-
Geraldo Rivera on CNBC's Rivera Live, August 13.
"Mr. President, we love you. I want to hug you, I want to
hug you, please do the right thing. This is nothing, this is
nothing. Thomas Jefferson did not have this in mind, I swear to
God.... I would give Ken Starr the Nobel Peace Prize were he to
be man enough not to refer a sex lie to the House for
impeachment."
-
Rivera urging Clinton not to cooperate, August 6 edition of Rivera
Live on CNBC.
Is He Great, or Just Naughty?
"Women who've
been polled seem to put it behind them as well, and are willing
to move on and forget about it. Is that because Bill Clinton's
been such a great President whom they elected in great part, or
is there something I want to say almost sexy about a man who can
get away with things over and over again?"
-
Good Morning America co-host Lisa McRee to Deborah
Tannen, August 18.
Banal Bob Easily Impressed
"I'm going to
take a deep breath here, Dan. That was just an extraordinary
statement. I, I don't recall, in all the time I've been in
Washington, hearing something quite like that. Is it enough? I
don't know....This was just an extraordinary statement
tonight, just the fact that the President of the United States
would come on television and discuss something like this, that
in itself is extraordinary. But to say that he had misled his
wife, he had misled his family, you don't hear this kind of
thing very often, Dan."
-
CBS News reporter Bob Schieffer just after Clinton spoke, August
17.
Loves Man or Job? Saudi Shame
"I think she loves
the guy. As hard as it is for us to believe, she loves the guy.
And I was sitting around with some friends of mine over the
weekend and we said well, alright, if she was married to a used
car salesman, would she still be there? And you know what? She
wouldn't. But she's married to a President and she is the
First Lady, so they both are doing this."
-
Time columnist and reporter Margaret Carlson on CBS's This
Morning, August 18.
"Who has ever been punished more for adultery in this
country? I mean, you have to go to Saudi Arabia to see people
shamed the way the President was. And I think it was nobody's
business."
-
Carlson on NBC's Today, August 19.
Dan's "Personal Life" Twist
"Results are in
tonight from a CBS News poll taken since Monica Lewinsky's
testimony to the Ken Starr grand jury: 63 percent of those
polled said even if there was wrongdoing by the President, it
would have been better for the country if the Starr
investigation into Mr. Clinton's personal life and whether he
lied about it had never started."
-
Dan Rather's twist on a poll which really asked "Whatever
happened, would it have been better if the investigation had
never begun?" August 7 CBS Evening News.
Can the Scandal Now End?
"The President
testifies. Making history at the White House. President Clinton
under oath answering questions from Kenneth Starr about Monica
Lewinsky. Did the President have sexual relations with her? Did
he lie about it? Or ask anyone else to lie about it? Will Ken
Starr let it end here?"
-
Tom Brokaw introducing the August 17 NBC Nightly News.
Provider-in-Chief
"The Cold War is
over, but President Clinton is still Commander-in-Chief of the
economy. Thats been Clinton's salvation. It explains the
vast discrepancy between his high job performance ratings - 76
percent say he can get things done - and his low personal
ratings - just 34 percent consider him honest and trustworthy.
He may not always be truthful, but he's a good provider."
- CNN political
analyst William Schneider on The World Today, August 12.
Knew He Was Lying All Along?
" I, like many
Americans, figured out months ago that something inappropriate
went on between these two people that the President was
embarrassed to talk about....I never said I absolutely believed
no sex went on. I am not that naive."
-
Eleanor Clift on FNC's OReilly Factor, August 16.
vs.
Clift: "If he told
the truth the first time, he should stick with it. If he's got
adjustments to make, now's the time."
John McLaughlin:
"So you think, you think that he will leave things the way
they are because it is your feeling that he told the truth,
right?"
Clift: "My feeling
is that he told the truth and I know on this set there is an
entire presumption of guilt. Read the words carefully. What did
he admit to? Read the words carefully. What did he admit
to?"
- July
25 McLaughlin Group.
Missing Clinton Already
"Clinton over the
years has shown a great capacity for self-pity, but in this
sense it would be partly deserved: no ordinary citizen would
face Clinton's present excruciating legal bind. No ordinary
errant male would face a special prosecutor with four years of
relatively slim results and an ever expanding mandate to search
for potential illegality....But legal rights are for ordinary
folks, not the man elevated to the office that transmutes a
lifetime of ambition, dealmaking, and supercharged hormones into
a symbol of dignity, power and promise to serve the greater
good."
- Time
Senior Editor Nancy Gibbs, August 10 cover story.
"The danger, of course, is a field of cardboard candidates,
life-like creatures who can pass any background check but lack
heart, instinct, and fire. Already, Dan Quayle and Trent Lott
have announced that they have never committed adultery. It's
enough to make you start missing Clinton."
-
Time Senior Writer Eric Pooley concluding an August 10
story on the impact of the Starr probe.
Rogue Prince of Prosperity
"After a while,
the two Clintons can give you whiplash. Dr. Clinton is a more
successful President than the fevered critics can yet
acknowledge. His decision to stiff liberals and play to the bond
market in 1993 paid off; the economy boomed and the deficit went
from $290 billion to zero. With Congress, he revolutionized
welfare (rolls are plummeting nationwide), put real money in the
pockets of the working poor, made community college virtually
free, brought health coverage to millions of uninsured kids,
passed gun control and family and medical leave. Crime is way
down; the Dow has more than doubled since Ken Starr began his
investigation."
-
Newsweek Senior Writer Jonathan Alter, August 24 issue.
"The ironies for a President not given to irony are
endless. Consider this: the best chance for Clinton to shine in
history might be for Congress to force him to pay the price for
lying about sex. In the unlikely event he is pushed from office,
it would take only weeks, maybe just days, before a vast
national remorse set in. We destroyed our lovable rogue prince
of prosperity over this? Clinton would become a martyr to a
legal system run amok. His defeat would mean victory over not
just sheet-sniffing prosecutors but all those who would
criminalize politics with endless investigations. As legacies
go, balancing the budget might look puny by comparison."
-
Jonathan Alter, later in same article.
Hillary's on Target
"Hillary Clinton
attacked her husband's attackers, saying a lot of the
criticism comes down to an anti-Arkansas bias. Well, chief among
his critics, it can fairly be said, is Kenneth Starr. And the
Starr Wars, it can also fairly be said, targeted Arkansas, home
of the Whitewater affair and the investigation that now, four
years later, seems to be winding up with the Lewinsky affair.
From the beginning, Mr. Starr's tactics and motives have come
under fire, especially the way he went after low level
targets..."
-
Morley Safer introducing a re-run of a story on Ken Starr's
tactics, August 16 60 Minutes.
France Says Why the Fuss?
"The reaction I
pick up from overseas is: 'Oh you Americans make to much about
sex. We do this in France. We do this in other countries. It's
never reported. Its not an issue.' True enough. But the
other and in a way more telling point that they make is that we
Americans have lost a sense of proportion. This is not worth
this attention. This press coverage. This special investigation.
That somewhere we've lost a sense of balance and have lost our
senses."
-
CNN's Garrick Utley before Clinton's August 17 address.
Publisher: L. Brent Bozell
Editors: Brent H. Baker and Tim Graham
Media Analysts: Jessica Anderson, Eric Darbe,
Geoffrey Dickens, Mark Drake, Paul Smith, Clay Waters
Research Associate: Kristina Sewell
Circulation Manager: Michelle Baetz
Intern: Carrie Hale