Lingua publica

The good and the bad...

web posted January 22, 2001

"The free market requires men and women whose word can be trusted and who have formed personal traits of self-discipline, prudence, and self-denial or the deferment of gratifications. Smaller government requires many of the same qualities so that individuals will not constantly turn to a powerful state to offer them complete security and a cornucopia of favors bought with other people's money." -- Robert Bork

"Hillary will be moving into a new house off Massachusetts Avenue, just as soon as her check clears the bank. Bill's mother-in-law has agreed to rent Bill the spare room in Little Rock until his new digs, in his presidential library, are completed in '04. This may say something about Hillary, that life with his mother-in-law in an oversized efficiency in Arkansas sounds better to Bill than life with Hillary in a house with seven bedrooms and bathrooms that seat five." -- Wes Pruden

"George W. Bush would have gained six votes more than Al Gore if all the dimples and hanging chads on 10,600 previously uncounted ballots in Miami-Dade County had been included in the totals, according to a review by The Palm Beach Post. That result would have been a hard blow to Al Gore's hopes of claiming the presidency in a recount. Before the vice president conceded last month, the Gore camp had expected to pick up as many as 600votes from a Miami-Dade recount -- barely enough to overtake Bush's razor-thin Florida lead. Instead, The Post's review indicates Gore would have lost ground. If everything were counted -- from the faintest dimple to chads barely hanging on ballots -- 251 additional votes would have gone to Bush and 245 more would have gone to Gore, The Post review showed." -- Palm Beach Post

"I think this nominee owes an apology to the people of the United States for that insinuation, talking about our government now being the source of tyrannical oppression. That's what I think, senator. I don't retreat. I don't retreat on any one of those matters." -- Ted Kennedy, attacking former Senate colleague and Attorney General nominee John Ashcroft

"Because of [Clinton's] political monomania, and because he is a perpetual preener who can strut even while sitting, Bill Clinton relished being president. The pomp, the cameras, the microphones make that office a narcissist's delight. But other than by soiling the office, he was a remarkably inconsequential president, like a person who walks across a field of snow and leaves no footprints. ... Clinton is not the worst president the republic has had, but he is the worst person ever to have been president." -- George Will

"Clinton's achievements largely consisted of persuading the Democrats to accept the more progressive parts of the Republican agenda. And even that modest assessment does not take into account the omissions of the Clinton years -- in particular, the deep cuts in U.S. defense spending that have created a serious mismatch between America's ambitious foreign policy commitments and the defense resources available to meet them. In other words, the inconsequential Clinton may eventually have consequences -- but they will descend on the head of his successor. O Lucky Man." -- John O'Sullivan

"On January 20...the person standing up before the Capitol taking the oath of office...will be sworn in as my president too. I will spare no efforts in saying to people who supported me, 'let's not have any talk about stealing the election, let's not question the legitimacy of the election'." -- Al Gore

"James Riady, the Indonesian billionaire with close ties to Beijing's leaders, was allowed to plead guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States. One of his banks will pay a fine of $8 million, to him a painless penalty. Because no threat of jail hangs over the Clinton money man who evaded subpoenas for almost five years, he is not induced to tell the whole truth about his hugely successful purchase of White House influence. ...The election law was broken, and the reluctant Justice Department had to be hounded by a vigilant press and frustrated Congress into doing even part of its duty. Riady's much-needed money passed and Clinton's favors were done and American's Asian policies were changed. No nostalgic spinning or pleas to move on will ameliorate that betrayal of trust." -- William Safire

"In their rancor toward the admirable John Ashcroft, soon to be the flinty-eyed, square-jawed attorney general from the Western Plains, the extremists of the Left are day by day adding fine detail to their own self-portrait." -- Michael Novak

"The level of mean-spirited invective and race-baiting demagoguery spewing from those who have suffered defeat has reached record-setting decibel levels. ... These faithful followers of left wing radicalism are not unlike the committed communists who, toward the end, finally were forced to accept that they had organized their lives around a profound system of lies, and staked their salvation on a sick and dying ideology." -- Linda Bowles

"If exaggerations and distortions are repeated often enough, they can become conventional wisdom, which may eventually acquire the status of historical truth. At least that's what the Clinton administration and its admirers are hoping as they try to shape how present and future Americans evaluate the 42nd president of the United States." -- Steve Chapman

"Tyranny seldom announces itself. ...In fact, a tyranny may exist without an individual tyrant. A whole government, even a democratically elected one, may be tyrannical." -- Joseph Sobran

"[T]here's a big conservative press unabashedly, and for the Democrats, and even people to the left of the Democratic party, there's almost virtually no outlets that you can compare with the vast array of conservative press that's out there." -- Bill Clinton

"The Bush administration came to office as a result of racist disenfranchisement of voters." -- Brian Becker, Director of International Action Center

"We will fight [John Ashcroft's] nomination [for Attorney General] tooth and nail. We have taken the position of 'by all means necessary'." -- NAACP's Hilary Shelton

"The angry white males who voted for Bush 2-1 and spent the year trashing Gore are left with no target for their venom. So they go back to their day jobs -- oiling their Smith & Wessons, hectoring pregnant girls scurrying into abortion clinics, jeering at welfare mothers." -- David Nyhan

"Perjury. Impeachment. Adultery. Harassment. Property scams. Estrangement. Staff firings. Creative word definitions. Who can doubt that Bill Clinton has been our nation's greatest president? ... He was juvenile, portly and Southern -- the best comic elements of Kennedy, Taft and Carter, all rolled up into one globular package. ... Now he's leaving us, and we'll miss him." -- Letterman comedy writer Chris Harris

"The first shotgun blast tore an intricate filigree through the word 'Birthplace.' The second riddled 'President' with pellet holes. Only the name on the road sign to the small Arkansas town survives unblemished: 'Hope'." -- Reporter James Langton on the "welcome" sign to Hope, Arkansas

"Clinton...[is] getting to be a little...melancholy. He's leaving behind in the White House a lot of...memories -- or as we call it: evidence!" -- David Letterman

web posted January 15, 2001

"First they came for the museums and the art houses, and we did nothing. Then they came for the universities, and, again, we did nothing. Then they took the publishing houses and newspapers. But then, then, they came for Dr. Seuss -- and it was too late. How the Grinch Stole Christmas recently became the most successful film of 2000. It earned about $220 million in slightly over a month, and could easily end up bringing in $300 million. The original tale featured a Scrooge-like creature with 'termites in his smile' and "garlic in his soul.' 'You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch,' went the song, and that was all we needed to know about him. ... In the new telling, the Grinch was horribly wronged by mean-spirited Whovilleans. He was a misunderstood child, raised in an alternative-lifestyle family, and was cast out from the snowy Eden by petty, jealous meanies." -- Jonah Goldberg

"As government regulations grow slowly, we become used to the harness. Habit is a powerful force, and we no longer feel as intensely as we once would have [the] constriction of our liberties that would have been utterly intolerable a mere half century ago." -- Judge Robert Bork

"The [New York] Times' chief political correspondent, Richard Berke, has reported that many Democrats were talking about President Clinton's serving as opposition leader even after he leaves the White House in January. That sounds more like a symptom of post-traumatic stress syndrome than a viable plan for the future." -- New York Times

"...Both parties have a great deal of thinking to do about their failures to build a solid majority. The Democrats took peace and prosperity and a nationally known vice president and were unable to attract rural and suburban white America. The Republicans took a candidate whose record and personal appeal to Hispanic and African-American voters was the most attractive in modern times, yet could only get 33% of the Latino vote and 8% of the African-American vote." -- Newt Gingrich

"I'm not Mother Teresa. However, I have tried to do right by people who have been in need. And some of that doing right by people recently has gotten me where I am -- here -- today. So long as the game in Washington is a game of search-and-destroy, I think we will have very few people who are willing to do what I did, which was to put myself through this in order to serve." -- Linda Chavez

"Welcome to the new political lexicon, a modern doublespeak that will explain Democrats' earnest and special reasons for opposing the Bush agenda and select Cabinet nominees. 'Compassionate conservative' means that George W. Bush is supposed to govern like a compassionate liberal and name compassionate liberals to Cabinet positions. 'Bipartisanship' occurs when Republicans grovel before the same Democrats who will use every opportunity to accuse the new Cabinet of racism and/or right-wing extremism. 'Paying down the deficit' means spending billions more on new federal programs instead of paying down the deficit. ... 'Mainstream' is the term pundits use to describe their liberal causes, as in affirmative action. ... 'Racism' no longer applies solely to those who denigrate minorities; racism and conservatism are synonymous; racism and Republican are synonymous." -- Debra Saunders

"[The nation owes Gore] a debt of thanks. The citizens of Florida are entitled to a UN fact-finding commission. Gore did win the popular vote and thus gives new impetus to abolishing the Electoral College." -- American Socialist Party's David McReynolds, joining Hillary Clinton and Jesse Jackson in calling for the abolition of the Electoral College.

"...[T]he Cato Institute's Steve Moore calculates that 1,000 people move every day from the 41 states with a state income tax to the nine states without one." -- Wall Street Journal

"Remember President Clinton's assurances that those who perpetrated the attack on the USS Cole would be identified and punished? Does anyone care that that promise remains unfulfilled? Does anyone care that Mr. Clinton's promise to track down the perpetrators of the Khobar Towers bombing in 1996 likewise remains unfulfilled?" -- Andrew Bacevich

"When Mr. Lott, who trained for the rough-and-tumble of Washington politics as a cheerleader at Ole Miss, gave up his sword -- or at least his pom-poms -- to Tom Daschle the other day, he signaled that the Democrats could roll the Republicans in the Senate without popping a proper sweat." -- Wes Pruden

"Republicans in the Senate have a death wish. Their leader, Trent Lott, thinks that he has saved himself and his party by agreeing to a so-called power sharing arrangement with the Democrats. The Democrats are laughing all the way to the 2002 elections at which point, the Republicans are going to get their clocks cleaned." -- Paul Weyrich

"The hearings in the matter of John Ashcroft for attorney general will be, indeed have already been, one more immersion in the recurrent pesthole of American politics, the liberal gang bang of choice conservative figures." -- Wm. F. Buckley

"The lesson is clear: have economic freedom and grow rich, or have extensive government control and interference, and stagnate and be poor. A country's institutional infrastructure is critical to the well-being of its citizens. The most critical are protection of private property, enforcement of contracts and rule of law -- not IMF bailouts, foreign aid and other handouts." -- Walter E. Williams

"I've been spoiled because of Bill Clinton. I think most African-Americans have been spoiled because Bill Clinton has done what's right. So until I see what happens [after Clinton leaves office], I guess I'm going to be like most Americans. I'm going to be afraid: I'm going to be frightened until something happens that's good for all of us." -- Retired baseball great Hank Aaron, after this week being awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal

"The Clintons are already buying a new home. This one is a three-story house. There's Hillary's story, Bill's story and that phony story they put out about living together as a married couple." --R.J. Johnson

"Republican minorities are not going to sound like Jesse Jackson." -- GOP strategist Allan Hoffenblum

"Hard to believe, but in two weeks Clinton will not be President anymore. He'll just be another chubby middle-aged guy bugging waitresses at Hooters." -- Jay Leno

"Both houses have confirmed George W. Bush to be the president-elect. The longer this goes on, it looks like he just might win this thing!" -- David Letterman

web posted January 8, 2001

"What America lacks today is statesmanship. It seems that our present leaders no longer inspire us with confidence, but reading our preferences in various opinion polls, their method is to win election through flattery. In other words, they tell us what we want to hear." -- J.R. Nyquist

"What President Bush will need is an agenda that catches fire without blowing up. Is such a thing possible? Yes, if Bush understands that bipartisanship need not be mush. The most successful feat of bipartisan governance in modern times occurred, after all, during Ronald Reagan's first term. Reagan's agenda did not pass because Tip O'Neill wanted him to succeed. It passed because Reagan's staff identified rank-and-file Democratic members of Congress who supported tax cuts, spending restraint, and the defense buildup." -- National Review

"The Clinton paradox is this: Rarely has a president so dominated the public stage and so little affected the public agenda. His central failure lay not in what he did -- which wasn't much -- but in what he deliberately avoided. As the first baby boomer president, he had a historic opportunity to prepare for his own generation's retirement. The task was to redraw the political compact between workers and retirees by modernizing Social Security and Medicare. Clinton didn't try, and worse, he consistently obstructed others in both parties who did. The reason impeachment and Lewinsky loom so large in the Clinton era is that there was so little else. He engaged, entertained and enraged. He was full of himself and full of talk. He had an amazing ability to outmaneuver his adversaries and gain short-term political advantage. But all the noise and action merely highlight the larger contradiction. He was always on the move but rarely going anywhere. He was mostly a do-nothing president." -- Robert J. Samuelson

"Hillary's first dilemma of 2001 is that, having lived on a public dole all her adult life, she has none of the household traps -- dishes, bed linens, pots, pans, bathroom plungers, brooms, mops, dust rags -- that are the due of a virgin bride, or at least a bride rarely touched by human hands." -- Wes Pruden. Hillary and Bill have put their $1.5 million house in Chappaqua, N.Y., up for sale -- the one purchased solely to establish residency for her Senate bid -- and they have purchased a $2.85 million colonial home on Embassy Row in Washington. This is a first for the Clintons, who have spent virtually their entire adult life in government-subsidized housing

"I think we need a tax cut. I don't know the exact size. It may be that it has to get bigger because the recession is looming and we've got economic worries out there." -- House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt

"[Clinton] degraded virtually everything he touched: the White House, the Oval Office, the staff, the cabinet, the country, the legal process.... He is a symbol of decadence." -- William Bennett

"Prosperity and economic recovery have their greatest friend in free markets, but their second greatest friend is paralyzed government." -- Lew Rockwell

"We are running out of tests that we can afford to fail. Gun registration may be the last one. If we let them do this to us, we deserve what we get." -- Michael Peirce

"If memory serves, it was only five short years ago that a similar $4.5 million book deal by Newt Gingrich set off a paroxysm of moralizing from Democrats and the Clinton crowd, with charges of a political payoff to Mr. Gingrich from HarperCollins owner Rupert Murdoch, culminating in an investigation by the House Ethics Committee. Boy, have standards changed over the past eight years. 'The White House claims the deal raises serious ethical questions,' reported CBS then. 'This is the first guy who tried to cash in before he was sworn in,' yelped James Carville. Said Dee Dee Myers from the majesty of the Clinton White House: 'I think that it raises some very important questions. I think it needs to be looked at.' ... So here we are five years later, and the bonfire this time is a little Hillary vigil candle by some watchdog group." -- Wall Street Journal

"My trade of journalism is sodden these days with practitioners who seem incapable of admiring others or anything." -- Roger Rosenblatt

"The intelligent minority of this world will mark 1 January 2001 as the real beginning of the 21st century and the Third Millennium." -- Arthur C. Clarke

"Well, first of all, there was the humbling aspect of constantly being the butt of everybody's jokes. The good news was I wasn't the only butt in the race." -- George Bush

"Senator Helms is not sick. He is not in the hospital. He is not on life support. He does not have terminal prostate cancer. He does not have pancreatic cancer. He is absolutely fine and will, God willing, be around to torment you for a long time to come." -- Marc Thiessen, press spokesman to Sen. Jesse Helms, on rumors Sen. Helms had a health problem

"The Clintons have bought a new home in Washington, D.C. A new three-and-a-half-million-dollar home! It looks like they'll be selling their home in Chappaqua, New York. How sad, so many memories. They spent over three nights in their home." -- Jay Leno

web posted January 1, 2001

"Do you think if a guy was dumb he would have been reelected governor of the second biggest state in the nation by 70 per cent of the vote? It speaks for itself." -- George H.W. Bush on Dubya's intellectual mettle to be president

"You know, one great thing about being radioactive is that I don't have to worry about that." -- New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson (R) on not expecting President Bush to call with a job offer

web posted December 25, 2000

"Democratic partisans are complaining that the presidential election has been settled not by the people but by judges. This is amusing. Who turned this into a lawyers' contest anyway? Within hours of Election Night, the Gore campaign parachuted dozens, ultimately hundreds of lawyers into Florida with one objective: to find judges to undo their loss." -- Charles Krauthammer

"House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt and Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle joined Jesse Jackson yesterday in refusing to say that George W. Bush's election was legitimate. In what critics saw as an extraordinary display of partisan rancor beyond anything in recent memory, the Democrats also declined to say that that his presidency, when it commences on Jan. 20, will be legitimate. Republicans said the three leading Democrats thus appeared to put the lie to Democratic leaders' claims that they will strive for comity and bipartisan cooperation with Mr. Bush and the Republican Congress." -- Washington Times

"Partisanship sharpens debate and opens the possibility of grand compromise. Bickering adds spice to life and pungent language to public discourse. And gridlock, much derided by goo-goos who foolishly put unity ahead of diversity, is the glory of tripartite government. Put that in your lockbox and smoke it." -- William Safire

"While Democrats made unexpected gains in the Senate this year, picking up a net four seats, and a slight gain of two seats in the House of Representatives, their overall political strength has significantly weakened over the past eight years under the Clinton administration. When Bill Clinton and Al Gore took office in 1993, Democrats held a 58-42 majority in the Senate, a 262-173 majority in the House, and controlled 30 governorships and a majority of the state legislatures. Although the Democrats have made modest gains in Congress since their debacle in 1994, their majority in Congress has vanished, the Democrats' governorships have shrunk to 19 -- with all of the major statehouses, except California, under Republican control -- and nearly half the state legislatures in Republican hands." -- Donald Lambro

"No wonder Al Gore thinks he is president -- this is a most confusing time. The leading rap singer is white, the world's best golfer is black, and Bill Clinton just got back from Vietnam." -- Paul Harvey

web posted December 18, 2000

"The most successful revolutions aren't those that are celebrated with parades and banners, drums and trumpets, cannons and fireworks. The really successful revolutions are those that occur quietly, unnoticed, uncommemorated. We don't celebrate the day the United States Constitution was destroyed; it didn't happen on a specific date, and most Americans still don't realize it happened at all. We don't say the Constitution has ceased to exist; we merely say that it's a 'living document.' But it amounts to the same thing." -- Joseph Sobran

"Mr. Gore's challenge became detached from its rational moorings sometime in mid-November. He and his supporters are propelled ever onward by the corrosive fuel of a partisan ambition. Is it likely that the Supreme Court will be left unscathed?" -- The Wall Street Journal's Tunku Varadarajan on the likelihood that Albert Gore's "scorched earth" suit for the White House will roast the Supreme Court

"I hope all Americans understand that even if the Supreme Court does what it's threatening to do -- which is to say we're not going to let you look at the ballots; we're going to say George Bush is the winner -- that will not make him the president." -- former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo

"All that we bled for and suffered for the last 25 years is now in the balance here today. This case is up there with the Dred Scott level of case; did the black man have a right the white was bound to respect? If this court rules against counting our vote, it will simply create a civil rights explosion. People will not surrender to this tyranny. We will fight back. ... [These are] nazi tactics! ... We will take to the streets right now, we will delegitimize Bush, discredit him, do whatever it takes, but never accept him." -- Jesse Jackson

"On January 20...the person standing up before the Capitol taking the oath of office...will be sworn in as my president too. I will spare no efforts in saying to people who supported me, 'let's not have any talk about stealing the election, let's not question the legitimacy of the election'." -- Albert Gore

"I'm not impressed by craft or skill." -- David Diao, National Endowment for the Arts panelist and three-time NEA grant recipient.

"To the delight of eco-Luddites, energy shortages in California and the Pacific Northwest are forcing residents to live like 17th-century peasants. ... While demand for electricity has skyrocketed, government officials continued to clamp down on supply. Overzealous air-quality laws, environmental permit applications, and siting paperwork have slowed the construction process to a near-halt. No new major generating plants have been built in over a decade. ... The green NIMBYs' power trip is enough to give you the shivers." -- Michelle Malkin

"We are once again in the midst of a great wave of overheated racial rhetoric. Jesse Jackson, of course, is out in front. Black voters didn't double-vote, mismark ballots or run into any normal election day foul-ups. No, they were victims of 'a systematic plan to disenfranchise black voters' and 'a clear pattern of voter suppression.' Attempting to repair his relationship with Jews, Jackson identified three targets of ballot oppression: Holocaust survivors, Haitian boat people and American descendants of slaves." -- John Leo

"Mr. Bush won't enjoy the traditional honeymoon granted presidents. Democrats won't wait long to unsheath the long knives." -- John Fund

"You've got to hand it to those Democrats and other liberals. They just never give up. It's like the pit bull that sinks those fangs in, locks 'em down, and won't let go until you beat it to death with a bat." -- Thomas Jipping

"Throughout the presidential election controversy, we have been bombarded with references to our sacred 'democracy.' The problem, of course, is that our country is not a democracy. Our nation was founded as a constitutionally limited republic, as any grammar school child knew just a few decades ago." -- Ron Paul

"Count first, and rule upon legality afterwards, is not a recipe for producing election results that have the public acceptance democratic stability requires." -- Justice Antonin Scalia

"Al Gore's national concession speech was gracious, respectful and conciliatory. And if you have a short memory, you might even have fallen for it...." -- Chuck Muth

"For all the present sensitivity over correctness, we seem to have lost our sense of shame as a society. Nothing seems to embarrass us; nothing shocks us anymore." -- Colin Powell

"The closer George W. Bush comes to winning the presidency, the more apocalyptic and disingenuous the liberal media become." -- Washington Times

"Until now, it was virtually impossible to believe that Vice President Gore could have more cavalierly betrayed the interests of American military men and women than they were by President Clinton, who once discussed on the phone with a senior Republican lawmaker the life-and-death issue of dispatching thousands of American soldiers to the Balkans while he was receiving oral sex from a White House intern. Through his recent actions (trying to throw out military absentee ballots) Mr. Gore has accomplished the unthinkable: He has trumped Bill Clinton in his contempt for the men and women who keep us free." -- Wall Street Journal

"Ground zero for the Counterculture of the '60s was Haight-Ashbury. Ground zero for the Haute-culture of the '00s is Adams-Morgan. Who are the protest singers of this era? Joan Baez and Bob Dylan have been replaced by Britney Spears and...Yanni." -- Rich Galen on the "protests" in Florida

"I heard Al Gore had trouble sleeping last night. So he started to count sheep. And then he had to recount sheep." -- Andrew Wisot

"Florida must now carry on its shoulders the reputation of incompetence, corruption, racial demagoguery, stupidity, arrogance and ignorance of the law. ... Of course, there is one state that isn't so sad to see Florida sink into the depths. Arkansas just became the 49th best place to live in America." -- Kimberly A. Strassel

"They bloody well did not pay the bill. I wouldn't quite say [Clinton] did a runner. I just don't think it occurred to him to pay." -- London pub owner Mike Bell on Clinton's exit from his restaurant without paying the bill

"When I joined the military it was illegal to be homosexual, then it became optional. I'm getting out before it becomes mandatory." -- General J. Wickam, USA (Retired)

"Gore keeps on talking about the will of the people. We need to trust the will of the people. Yeah, that's the same will of the people that made Charlie's Angels the number one movie in the country." -- Jay Leno

"Just moments ago, I spoke with George W. Bush and congratulated him on becoming the 43rd president of the United States. I promised him that I wouldn't call him back this time." -- Al Gore

web posted December 11, 2000

"The progressives' campaign against the Scouts is another example of the liberals' extremism. It has been a characteristic of them for several decades. They set out on a good cause -- in this case tolerance -- and become intolerant themselves. They call for diversity and end up demanding conformity. The Scouts' ban on homosexuality does not harm homosexuals. It causes them no material damage and no embarrassment -- unless they are, well, a little too sensitive. They might remember Groucho's old line about not wanting to be a part of any club whose standards were so low as to allow him entry. There is wisdom there." -- R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.

"Al Gore is contesting the Presidential election not from clawing ambition, his spinners tell us, but because he has divined that he really won. Maybe so. A mind that can count a dimpled chad as a vote is capable of believing about anything. Mr. Gore's professed high-mindedness would be easier to credit, though, if it were not washed in the casual attitude toward the truth that we have come to expect from the author of no controlling legal authority, the Buddhist Temple fund-raiser and the iced tea defense." -- Wall Street Journal

"What this country needs is not less federalism but more. This Republic was founded on the principle that remote government is bad government, and that's truer than ever in an age when Hillary, Al, and their chums in the courts want to take us down the path to European-style centralism. One of the reasons I'm a federalist is that I believe that, in a healthy society, if you don't like things the way they are, you shouldn't have to leave the country. That's the genius of America: There's always somewhere to move to." -- Mark Steyn

"I may not have been the greatest president, but I've had the most fun eight years." -- Bill Clinton

"Conventional wisdom holds that the bitterness and rancor left over from Florida guarantees the Texas governor will be a one-term lame duck. Mr. Bush can turn conventional wisdom on its head by moving strongly and boldly." -- Steve Forbes

"Since 1968 a pattern has emerged. When there is a visible ideological difference between the two parties, the Republicans win. When the Democratic candidate manages to create the impression that he isn't much more liberal than his opponent, the Democrats win." -- Joseph Sobran

"To hell with bipartisanship; this is war. ... At this point, the only reason to reach across the aisle is to land a solid sock on the jaw. Consorting with criminals is corrupting." -- Don Feder

"But one thing is for sure: If [Gore's] view prevails, you can count on a society where lawyers rule as kings -- and the rest of us will have to duck for cover." -- Tony Snow

"If the government of the United States is going to be run like the mafia or a Third World despotism, what does our freedom amount to?" -- Thomas Sowell

"After election night, will the media take a long hard look at itself? Absolutely: just like Narcissus." -- Ramesh Ponnuru

"We shouldn't confuse our own fatigue with the actual state of the struggle." -- Alan Keyes

"The country is already paying a price for Al Gore's unprecedented war for the White House. The price can be measured in cynicism." -- Mona Charen

"Mr. Gore should not win by subtracting votes legitimately cast for his opponent. His refusal to forcefully call on his local supporters to drop the [Seminole County] suit, or to rule out benefiting from its outcome, represents a failure of statesmanship on his part." -- New York Times

"From my perspective as a professor of humanities and media studies, the covert power presently wielded by partisan liberal journalists has become positively alarming.... The Internet, via its numerous political news-link sites, is enormously liberating...." -- Camille Paglia

"They did the same thing to Linda Tripp. If you can't find anything on a woman, make fun of the way she looks. If that doesn't stick, start a phony sex rumor, because it's like fog. You can't make it go away." -- Lucianne Goldberg, on reports that journalists are scrambling to create a Katherine Harris scandal

"This is boring!... Now I know what people went through when...my Bronco was going up the freeway." -- O. J. Simpson on the presidential contest

" 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas' [has grossed] $172 million in 17 days! Wow, you would have thought that the Grinch was a political attorney in Florida." -- Jerry Perisho

"I'm starting to think the strategy of Al Gore is just to annoy us into letting him win. I have a solution -- let's just let Gore be president of Florida." -- Jay Leno

"Al Gore is very desperate. He really wants to win. The whole deal with Gore is this, you see, he's spent the last eight years around the White House and now he just wants to be able to walk into the Oval Office without knocking and yelling, 'Are you decent?!'" -- David Letterman

"President Clinton said that the Florida votes should be recounted or 'America will be embarrassed in front of the world.' [He] went on to say, 'Remember...embarrassing America in front of the world is my job!'" -- Conan O'Brien

Current Issue

Archive Main | 2001

Musings - ESR's blog

E-mail ESR

Home