Conservatism Loses Elections?
"If you are going
to look for a trend, I think maybe it would be that this was a
fairly tough season for very ideological Republicans, not the
moderates but the social conservatives. You had Bob Inglis, the
challenger, going down to Fritz Hollings in South Carolina. You
had Lauch Faircloth, an incumbent, very conservative Senator,
going down in North Carolina. Mark Neumann, the very
conservative challenger to Russ Feingold in Wisconsin, also
lost. So if there is a trend, maybe that's it."
-
CNN's Bruce Morton at 12:40am ET election night.
"One of the great myths today is that if it weren't for
the Lewinsky scandal, the Republicans would have done better. If
this campaign had been fought on the issues... I think the
Democrats would have won the House and gained seats in the
Senate. And they were denied that because of President
Clinton's recklessness."
-
Wall Street Journal's Al Hunt on CNNs Capital
Gang, Nov. 7.
"I think the real danger for the Republicans is misreading
the election. There are a lot of very conservative Republicans
who say the reason why they lost seats was because the party
wasn't pure enough, it wasn't right-wing enough. I think
that's exactly the wrong message....As Dick Gephardt has said
on the show this morning, that part of the problem any
Republican leader is going to have is that Hamas wing of the
Republican Party who are not going to compromise."
-
Steve Roberts of the New York Daily News (formerly of the
New York Times and U.S. News), Nov. 8 CNN Late
Edition.
"Ninety percent of the voters we talked to said they wanted
more cooperation and less confrontation. Let's turn to you,
Congressman Cox. Do you think now that the Republican voice will
become more moderate and that those extreme right-wing
conservatives will have less of a voice?"
-
Good Morning America co-host Lisa McRee, November 9.
All Hail the "Pragmatic Centrists"
"You know
there's this old line that the only thing in the middle of the
road is a yellow line and a dead armadillo. But now everybody is
running to the middle of the road. And the faster that you get
there, the better you do at the polls. So this is a bad election
for extremists in both parties and a bad night I think for the
Christian Coalition and those who want to pull the Republican
Party to the right. The centrist, pragmatic Republican Governors
did very well."
-
Newsweek's Jonathan Alter, November 4 Today.
The New Speaker Must Go Left...
"But, Randy, there
are people, I think lots of people today who are looking, for
example, at California, even the Carolinas, and saying that this
kind of strident, conservative, social conservative position is
not a winning position, and if you're going to replace the
Speaker, you need someone who is more inclusive, not less
inclusive."
-
Good Morning America substitute co-host Aaron Brown to
Randy Tate of the Christian Coalition, November 5.
...Like Our Liberal Heroes!
"If someone like
Russ Feingold, who is trying to really promote campaign finance
reform, and trying to run basically as clean a campaign finance
campaign as one can run, gets wiped out in Wisconsin that's
really depressing to me. If you can't win that kind of
campaign in Wisconsin, I find that really disappointing."
-
New York Times columnist (and former reporter) Thomas
Friedman on PBS's Washington Week in Review, October
30.
"Politics is a copycat profession. If Feingold prevails in
his maverick my-way campaign, the elections can still be won
without bartering your soul for soft money. And if he loses, it
will be Halloween all year long."
-
USA Today columnist (and former Time reporter)
Walter Shapiro, October 28.
"I think Humphrey wins. I mean, the delight, nationally at
least, to have another Humphrey in the arena."
-
Sam Donaldson on ABC's This Week, November 1. Democrat
Skip Humphrey finished third in Minnesotas gubernatorial
race.
Fusillades Against Faircloth
"I've got to
know, Pat, why is this John Edwards/Lauch Faircloth race so
important to the Republicans, other than the obvious that
Senator Faircloth is considered to be one of the junior Grand
Wizards of the vast right-wing conspiracy?"
-
MSNBC's Keith Olbermann to former Democratic pollster Pat
Caddell, October 26 Big Show.
"I'm happy about Fritz [Hollings]. He's a crusty old
coot, the kind you don't really see in Congress any more.
Faircloth is a sort of more recent edition. He's a member of
the hater branch of the North Carolina Republican Party, so good
riddance to him."
-
Newsweek Assistant Managing Editor Evan Thomas, November
7 Inside Washington.
Glenn's Glory Great for Clinton
"Tonight President
Clinton and NASA are basking in John Glenn's status and who
can blame Mr. Clinton if some of Glenn's glory reflects onto
him, what with congressional elections just five days
away."
- NBC
reporter David Bloom, October 29 Nightly News.
Clinton's Just Like Jefferson
"Could a new
genetic study suggesting Thomas Jefferson fathered a child with
a slave be a boost for President Clinton in fighting
impeachment? The study in next week's edition of the journal Nature
concludes that new genetic work, coupled with old circumstantial
evidence, proves Jefferson fathered at least one child by his
slave, Sally Hemings. One of the study's authors says it
suggests, according to history, presidential indiscretions are
long-standing."
-
CNN anchor Marina Kolbe, October 31 The World Today.
"And if the test results mean Jefferson is now regarded as
what one scholar calls 'a 90s kind of guy,' the White
House must be smiling. After all, if Bill Clintons favorite
President could end up on Mount Rushmore and the two-dollar
bill, despite being sexually active with a subordinate, it might
put Mr. Clinton's conduct with a certain intern in a different
light."
- NBC
reporter Bob Faw, November 2 Nightly News.
Hefner, Guccione, Flynt, Starr
"The cosponsor
Arthur Schlesinger, the legendary aide to John F. Kennedy, was
particularly blunt and harsh when it came to the subject of Ken
Starr. Ken Starr, America's number one pornographer in Arthur
Schlesingers words."
"America's number one pornographer, Arthur Schlesinger
calls Ken Starr. Back in a flash, stay tuned."
"Be right back. Arthur Schlesinger said of Ken Starr that
he is America's number one pornographer."
- Geraldo Rivera on a
letter from historians saying Clinton's actions are not
impeachable, October 28 Rivera Live on CNBC.
"Fairly Timid" or "Hard-Hitting"?
"The Republican
National Committee today unleashed three fairly timid ads in
which the subject of President Clinton's indiscretions and
evasions are ever so gently hinted at."
-
Ted Koppel on the October 28 Nightline.
vs.
"Then Gingrich
backed off, playing the part of statesman.... Only to
orchestrate an open-ended congressional investigation and
personally approve hard-hitting commercials just before the
election."
-
ABC reporter Chris Bury on the November 6 Nightline.
J. Edgar Hoover = Joseph Stalin?
"In the Soviet
Union and in America, the Cold War was fought by fear. The
Soviet Union raised fences against the outside world. The Gulag,
the secret universe of labor camps, swallowed the lives of
millions. Both sides turned their fear inwards against their own
people. They hunted the enemy within."
-
CNN Cold War narrator Kenneth Branagh in the Nov. 1
installment plugged on www.cnn.com/coldwar: [1] "The 1950s
usher in an era of fear and persecution on both sides of the
globe."
Promoting a Negative Reaction to GOP Impeachment Ads
"Mr. Nicholson,
it's been said that the political climate and discourse in
this country has been coarsened to a great degree by what Bill
Clinton has done this year. Is there not a sense that this kind
of advertising continues the process rather than puts
Republicans on a higher road than Mr. Clinton?"
-
Keith Olbermann to RNC Chairman Jim Nicholson, October 28 Big
Show on MSNBC.
"But just raising the subject again could everybody
just go 'Bleah!' 'Sick of it?"
-
ABC's Lisa McRee to ABC News political director Mark Halperin,
October 29 Good Morning America.
Rather's Election Night Patter: Enough to Gag a Buzzard
"Democrats and Republicans are nervous as pigs in a packing plant over these returns because the polls have closed and we don't know the results."
"Now, if you're
in those states where the polls are open, let me encourage you
to vote. And of course, if youre in a state where the polls
are closed, let me encourage you not to vote. It's
illegal."
- Dan Rather ending
the November 3 Evening News.
"Charles Schumer is one of the stunners of the night. This race was as hot and squalid as a New York elevator in August."
"How sweet this must be for President Clinton. Lauch Faircloth, the man who actually was responsible, along with Jesse Helms, for making Ken Starr the special prosecutor, who has dogged President Clinton for so long. Lauch is locked out in North Carolina."
"The call is just
in for the South Carolina Senate race. This was one of the
cardiac arrest time races. This thing was nasty enough to gag a
buzzard. But it turns out that Fritz Hollings, the veteran
Democratic Senator, has held on to win."
- Rather on the
election night CBS News special, November 3.
Publisher:
L. Brent Bozell
Editors: Brent H. Baker and Tim Graham
Media Analysts: Ross Adams, Jessica Anderson, Brian Boyd,
Geoffrey Dickens, Mark Drake, Paul Smith, Clay Waters
Research Associate: Kristina Sewell
Circulation Manager: Michelle Baetz