Lingua publicus The last month in quotes...the good and the bad "It is time to separate this fool from our money," -- Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform after a $1.77 trillion budget was proposed. "Clinton has been spending the past month promoting new ways to spend our money faster than a drunken sailor." "I am invoking Ronald Reagan's 11th Commandment - thou shalt not speak ill of fellow Republicans." -- Dan Quayle, after one week of continual criticism aimed at George W. Bush "Politicians have no right to charge the taxpayers more than it costs to run the government. The budget surplus is an overcharge that should be returned to the taxpayers immediately before Washington's big spenders squander it." -- Leader Dick Armey "Instead of privatizing Social Security, he would socialize private capital markets." -- National Review Online "Don't be fooled by this crowd. They will take away our freedom. They are not new Democrats, they are new-age socialists." -- Dan Quayle on Clinton/Gore and company "Elites have always felt they've had wisdom superior to the masses and an ordained duty to forcibly impose that wisdom on the rest of us. What's surprising is Clinton's audacity to articulate that sentiment.' -- Walter Williams "When this whole business has ended, Starr ought to take a leaf from Gary Cooper in 'High Noon.' He should throw his badge in the dust and leave this town in contempt." -- Joseph Sobran "Republicans are trying to get the public's attention with one of their favorite tactics: promising tax cuts for everyone." -- ABC's John Cochran. Which is better Mr. Cochran? Tax cuts or handouts? "I hear my Democratic friends want to add two faces to Mount Rushmore -- Bill Clinton." -- Rep. Matt Salmon, who is preparing legislation to add President Reagan to the South Dakota national monument "He's a goober, right. And he's a lying goober at that...." -- Tom Brokaw in a moment of weakness on Letterman's Late Show. "I think the legacy of this trial was the fact that the Democrats took the hard line of ignoring the criminal activity of one of their own rather than viewing the evidence objectively." -- Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner "I have gone through it all at your side -- the media condemnations, the patronizing editorials, the hate mail, the insults hurled in public, the attempts at intimidation, the death threats and even the disapproval of our colleagues, which cuts the worst. ... All a congressman ever gets to take with him when he leaves is the esteem of his colleagues and constituents -- and we have risked that for a principle, for our duty as we have seen it." -- Sen. Henry Hyde to the 13 House managers "[Clinton's] lies to the grand jury were not to protect his family or the dignity of his office, but to protect himself from criminal liability for his perjury and obstruction of justice in the Jones case. ... I think the legacy of this trial was the fact that the Democrats took the hard line of ignoring the criminal activity of one of their own rather than viewing the evidence objectively." -- James Sensenbrenner, House manager "I would like the Senators to look at the evidence and the facts. ... I think if Mr. Clinton, and I know it's not going to happen perhaps, but if he were taken from office by a vote of the Senate, the next day people would go to work, the masters of the universe would day trade their stocks, mothers would take their children to day care centers, there would not be rioting in the streets and the country would go on. ... I think the country would go on and the rule of law...would be re-established." --White House correspondent Sam Donaldson. "In an age of political cynicism, Henry Hyde and House Republicans fought for the rule of law against the liberal establishment and despite a complacent public and cowering Senate. Our politics needs more such 'defeats'." -- Paul Gigot "One would have hoped for some faint sign of moral life among the Democrats, but since they offered nothing more substantial than the portentous but ultimately empty words of Sen. Joseph Lieberman and the fulsome fulminations of Sen. Robert Byrd, there is now another matter to attend to: the post-impeachment spin." -- Mona Charen "Bill Clinton has trampled the virtue of integrity. Al Gore calls this greatness and asks Americans to rejoice in it. That will be an issue in this campaign." -- Dan Quayle "Why...do you think he's [Clinton] so hated? He's a moderate to a conservative right, basically?" --Larry King "Does that bother you at all, that sort of, the fact that we've seem to have almost dismissed the notion that the President of the United States ought to be ethical, moral, a good example to young people?" -- Ted Koppel to Sen. Dianne Feinstein "No matter what, Bill, your girlfriend's ugly, your wife hates you, and your dog can't hunt." -- P.J. O'Rourke "The eloquence and dignity with which the 13 House 'managers' defended the rule of law and sexual harassment will remain shining moments in the history of the women's movement. Even though its outcome had been predetermined when the Democrat senators decided to vote as one block, the courage the 'managers' displayed in presenting their case under a vicious barrage of organized ridicule calls for recognition and applause. ... We are, however, unmoved by the display of moral outrage Democrats profess to feel toward a man they otherwise passionately support, someone we concluded uses and abuses women and then seeks to destroy those who attempt to expose the harm they suffered. American women deserved better than the year of unabashed sexism we just endured, relentlessly fueled by a political party we have long supported." -- Dulles VA Chapter of NOW, breaking the code of silence maintained by the NOW's national leadership. "It is rather ironic that when governments want to increase taxes they are effective immediately. When it comes to reducing taxes, they are always delayed. Mr. Martin must take us to be dummies." -- A Canadian's reaction to Paul Martin's budget "The public has no clue .. absolutely no idea what Monica endured ... the histrionics, the hysteria. ... She threatened suicide on more than one occasion." -- Linda Tripp "The American dream does not happen by asking Americans to accept what's immoral and wrong in the name of tolerance." -- J.C. Watts "The culture of liberality and tolerance of anything, so long as there is material progress, prevailed -- at least in this battle ... in the ongoing culture war." -- Rep. Henry Hyde "[Mr. Clinton] has done more to stamp out left-liberal values than J. Edgar Hoover. As civil libertarians note, he is a menace to civil liberties." -- R. Emmett Tyrrell "The House managers stood for principle, after all, despite the clamor about political risk. ... Republicans have emerged from this episode with a great deal more dignity than the Congressional minority, let alone the occupant of the White House." -- Wall Street Journal "Bill Clinton...is hoping you'll help by turning your back on a big tax cut. ... It is the new battleground after impeachment: Social Security and Medicare for the future or fewer taxes right now." -- NBC's Tom Brokaw "I do believe that even though Adolf Hitler preached a perverted form of Christianity, God did not want him to prevail." -- Bill Clinton addressing the National Prayer Breakfast "Ever seen a Polish mine detector? [The Pope] should get with it. Welcome to the 20th century." -- Ted Turner at the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, when asked what he would say to Pope John Paul II about his opposition to abortion and artificial contraception. "Whenever Mr. Clinton needs money, he calls for Philip Morris." -- Cato's Robert Levy "I will just say that if I would have behaved in that manner, Minnesota wouldn't have to worry, I would have resigned." -- Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura on whether he respected Bill Clinton "I'm a great believer in power to the states. ... If there's a state that you don't agree with their policies, then you have 49 more states that you can go to live. If the federal government continues to grow and dominate, then that limits where you can go." -- Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura "...[Clinton's] is a tabloid presidency, don't ever forget that." -- Rush Limbaugh "Any perjury committed by the president is strictly a matter between the president and the public. It is difficult to understand how a principled argument can be made that a perjurer could remain in office." -- GWU law professor Jonathan Turley "She's thinking about moving to New York to straighten things out. Well...we don't need liberal Democrats moving from Washington to the states to straighten out the states. We need Republicans from...across the country moving to Washington to straighten it out." -- Gov. George E. Pataki on Hillary Rodham-Clinton's flirtation with a Senate run in New York. "I believe in self- sufficiency. You're asking the government to make up for [your] mistakes. Is that the government's job? Who gave me anything?" -- Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura in a confrontation with liberal protestors. "While I am a strong supporter of President Clinton and many of his policies, blind faith had nothing to do with my decision to endorse certain candidates. ... Of the nearly 362 Democrats running for the House of Representatives, the 34 Democrats running for the Senate, and the 38 Democrats running for gubernatorial seats, I endorsed fewer than 200." -- The politically discriminating Barbra Streisand. "[Trent Lott] comes from one of these low IQ states, Mississippi. Last year, Trent Lott said that the Bible says that a homosexual is sinful. 'Homosexuality is the same as sex addiction or alcoholism or kleptomania,' he said. ... In the real world, records of the New York City Police Department show that it is rare for gays to be caught stealing from stores.[sic]" -- Newsday's Jimmy Breslin, on low IQs. "People who think like us may be in the minority, but we're the smart ones. ... [The Ten Commandments] are a little out of date. If you're only going to have 10 rules, I don't know if [prohibiting] adultery should be one of them. -- Ted Turner "Fundamental, Bible believing people do not have the right to indoctrinate their children in their religious beliefs, because we, the state, are preparing them for the year 2000, when America will be part of a one-world global society and their children will not fit in." -- Peter Hoagland, a Nebraska State Senator "All this talk about what history's going to say about Clinton -- I mean, we're all going to be dead. I mean, who's going to care? A few historians and Clinton's great-great- great grandchildren, however many there are." -- Democratic strategist Bob Beckel "The symptoms are unmistakable: Swollen ego, delusions of grandeur, loss of good judgment. The illness: Potomac fever, that dread disease of believing Washington has all the answers. The cure: Going home, building private businesses, creating jobs." -- Bob Jones in World "And yet, I mean, there was no question, if we went by the rule of law, he'd be out of there." -- Clinton lover Andy Rooney on Larry King Live (February 23, 1999) |
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