Even Reporters Can't Think of a Clinton Accomplishment
"The Democrats are being
blamed more than Republicans because they ran in 1992 saying,
`If you elect us we will get all of these things done. We'll
have a Democratic White House, we'll have a Democratic Congress,
and all of the gridlock you saw in the past will fade away.'
Instead, they look like the gang that couldn't shoot straight,
they can't get anything through. Now that's not exactly true,
because in fact they've gotten a lot of things through,
important things like, uh, uh, I can't think of any right
now."
- NBC News and former New York Times
reporter Gwen Ifill on Meet the Press, October 2.
Letting Gumbel Be Gumbel
"Washington set a bad
example in the Reagan '80s of living beyond our means. Is that
how we got into this credit card mess?"
- Today
co-host Bryant Gumbel to financial adviser Ray Martin, October
14.
Please Name A Spending Cut
"At the same time, social
programs the poor once fell back on - welfare, unemployment
insurance, health and family benefits - have been cut. So more
people are falling through the safety net and ending up on the
streets."
- Los Angeles Times staff writer Robin
Wright on the homeless, October 4.
Republicans On A Roll: You Stupid Voters
You Think Congress Is
Out-of-Touch? Look in the Mirror, Voters; The Trouble Starts With You
- Washington
Post, October 16
Who? Us? Washington Really Is in Touch. We're the Problem.
- New
York Times, same day
Contract with America: Shoddy Reaganomics
"The President who all the
pundits said would have to let Democrats distance themselves
from his record because of his own unpopularity is putting his
economic programs, promises, and accomplishments up against
Ronald Reagan's and is telling the nation to re-elect
Democrats...Have the President and his advisers gone mad? No.
They've got solid political and economic arguments to back their
argument...Reagan's recipe of tax cuts and heavy defense
spending helped quadruple the national debt and contributed to
the 1990-91 recession and the weak recovery that followed."
- USA Today reporter Mark Memmott in an October 10
commentary.
"There were 300 of you on
the Capitol steps a couple of days ago, got together to sign
this pledge which kind of harkened up a lot of memories of
Ronald Reagan...Among the things you talk about wanting to do -
raise defense spending, cut taxes, balance the budget - but did
you all neglect to figure out how to pay for all of that?...But
the real deal here if we're talking about Reaganomics, which
this seems to be harkening back to, tax cuts for the rich and
everything else...You're talking back to the days when budget
deficits ran out of control."
- CBS This Morning
co-host Harry Smith to Newt Gingrich, September 30.
"Now Bill Clinton can
really do what he did a year ago, when he complained about being
an Eisenhower Democrat, when he was working on his budget, as we
learned from Bob Woodward's book The Agenda. He really can go
out there in the next month and be an Eisenhower Democrat, and
say 'The Republicans are making promises that are going to bust
the budget. I, a responsible, middle-of-the-road, conservative
type, can tell you it's not going to work."
- ABC reporter
John Cochran on This Week with David Brinkley, October
2.
Ollie's Un-American
"`Bill Clinton is not my
commander-in-chief.' What an awful outburst. But that's what
former Marine Oliver North said the other day. What an awful
man....But Oliver North is still an American, and his conduct is
unbecoming an American, especially an American who is
campaigning to serve in the U.S. Senate. How can a man who has
no respect for democracy, who has thumbed his nose at all three
branches of our government, who has determined that the
Constitution does not apply to him, expect us to send him to the
U.S. Senate?"
- Former NBC News President Michael Gartner
in his USA Today column, October 18.
Clinton the Moderate Faces Raw Hate
"Around the country,
President Clinton is routinely trashed by conservative talk-show
hosts and Republican candidates for being the most liberal
President in modern times...But based on the measures that Mr.
Clinton succeeded in getting through Congress in his first two
years, he looks like Mainstream Bill....The Clinton record is
surprisingly pro-business and centrist."
- Wall Street
Journal reporter Jeffrey Birnbaum, October 7.
"The tone of these attacks
is like nothing Americans have seen in years. Opponents
sometimes said George Bush, a World War II hero, was a wimp, or
an aristocrat who went to grade school in a limousine. People
laughed at Ronald Reagan's sleepy habits and his reluctance to
grapple very often with legislative or political substance. But
this is raw hate being directed at Mr. Clinton."
- Wall
Street Journal reporters Jeffrey Birnbaum and James M.
Perry, October 17.
No One Here But Us Moderates
"President Clinton's two
appointees - Ruth Bader Ginsburg and [Stephen] Breyer - are
likely supporters of affirmative action, but are cautious
moderates...The fourth new justice, David Souter, who replaced
liberal William Brennan, Jr., may hold the key - as he appears
to on an increasing number of issues. The Bush appointee is
emerging as a major force on the court for a common sense,
moderate view of the law."
- USA Today reporter
Tony Mauro, October 3.
Please Vote for Democrats, the Party of Reform
"Killing a bill that
cracked down on lobbyists was simple, spiteful, self-interested
obstruction. It was too arrogant by half, and come November the
voters - well-informed by TV on this particular issue - might
haul the GOP in on a hypocrisy rap, which could help deprive the
party of the majority it so covets...The voters can vent their
own sour feelings by indiscriminately throwing people out, or by
looking more closely at who talks reform, and who really means
it."
- Newsweek Senior Editor Jonathan Alter,
October 18.
Forgetting About John Sununu, or Richard Allen...
"[Agriculture Secretary
Mike Espy's resignation] left many wondering how someone once
regarded as so politically astute could seemingly have been so
indifferent to the appearance, if not the reality, of abusing
his office for personal gain....Clearly, another factor
contributing to Espy's fall was that the allegations occurred in
a political climate far less forgiving to even the appearance of
impropriety than that which existed even a few years ago."
- Los Angeles Times reporters Elizabeth Shogren and
Alan C. Miller, Oct. 4.
Our Racist Foreign Policy
"I think that if Haiti had
been a nation as close as they are to our shores and had been a
nation of white people oppressed the way these people are
oppressed, with a democratically elected leader overthrown by a
coup, we would have gone in there, and a lot earlier than we
wound up going in there."
- Los Angeles Times
Washington Bureau Chief Jack Nelson on C-SPAN's Journalists'
Roundtable, October 7.
Publisher: L.
Brent Bozell III
Editors: Brent H. Baker, Tim Graham
Media Analysts: James Forbes, Andrew Gabron,
Mark Honig, Steve Kaminski, Gesele Rey, Clay Waters
Circulation Manager: Kathleen Ruff
Interns: Melissa Gordon, Jim Renne