Lingua publica
The good and the bad...
web posted November 22, 1999
"Well, first of all, I think Naomi Wolf's parents should sue her alma mater, Yale University, for malpractice. If we judge by her clarity of reasoning and command of language at age 37, her education was a fraud. She was injected with passé feminist and post-structuralist doctrine at an impressionable age, and she never received the kind of disciplined training in high-level philosophy and intellectual history that she desperately needed." -- Camille Paglia on Wolf and her attempt to turn Al Gore into an "alpha male"
"People just accept infidelity from celebrities like it's OK or fashionable. I think it's disgusting." -- June Gumbel, whom Bryant Gumbel left for girlfriend, former financial researcher Hillary Quinlan. No wonder he defended Clinton. June Gumbel is refusing to give him a divorce on the grounds she is a "very devout Catholic"
"I have regrets because I made a personal mistake but I disagree. I think historians will say that I did the right thing to stand against a tide that would have done permanent and terrible damage to the Constitution and the framework. And I made a personal mistake, and they spent $50 million trying to ferret it out and root it out, because they had nothing else to do, because all the other charges were totally false -- bogus, made up and people were persecuted because they wouldn't commit perjury against me. People were indicted because they wouldn't." -- Bill Clinton
"He's a very accomplished political leader and he's got good instincts for where the political center is," -- Bill Clinton on George W. Bush
"With all respect to [Mr. Clinton], I think he's just failed to come to grips with the findings, not of an independent counsel, not the views of a member of Congress, but the chief judge of his home district in Arkansas. ... And for the sake of the presidency, I think it would be -- and for the country, it would be a good thing if he recognized and acknowledged his wrongdoing with respect to the judicial process." -- Ken Starr hinting Bill Clinton should just admit he lied to protect himself against the Jones sexual harrassment lawsuit.
"Gore's multiplying accusations of partisanship reflect a mentality unable to accept that honorable, intelligent people can differ about most things. The name for this mentality is: fanaticism. For Gore...the politics of sanctimony involves denigrating the motives, and hence the character, of opponents." -- George Will
"Democracy and liberty are not the same. Democracy is little more than mob rule, while liberty refers to the sovereignty of the individual." -- Walter Williams
"An old-time, unrepentant...tax-and-spend, bleeding heart, die-hard liberal Democrat." -- Warren Beatty describing his political beliefs
"Senate Republicans have criticized Bill Clinton's overseas travel after a Government Accounting Office study showed $72 million was spent on foreign trips last year including $43 million on a trip to Africa. I, for one, think that the Africa trip was worth ten times as much. How else would we have gotten that great footage of Clinton dancing around his hotel room with a cigar in his mouth, pounding on a pair of bongo drums when he found out he had won a summary judgment in the Paula Jones case?" -- Rich Galen
"You know, if he's that delusional, maybe he did inhale." -- the NRA's Wayne LaPierre, on a Bill Clinton claim to be a lifetime NRA member
"George W. Bush now says he opposes same-sex marriages. President Clinton said today he also opposes same-sex marriages. But, see, in Clinton's case, he means he opposes sex with the same person you're married to. I don't think he understands the issue." -- Jay Leno
"There's a new book about Hillary. It says that Hillary dumped her first boyfriend because he wasn't ambitious enough. She was waiting for Mr. Right!" -- David Letterman
"In a poll in the New York Post, Clinton was chosen the 2nd most evil person this millennium, and Hillary was chosen the 6th most evil. After hearing this, Clinton was outraged and said, 'That's ridiculous, she should be 2nd and I should be 6th.'" -- Conan O'Brien
"I do think Bill Gates has gotten, in general, a bad rap. He actually seems like a very nice person. Microsoft has innovated quite a bit over the years and people overlook that." -- Amazon.com founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos
web posted November 15, 1999
"I've always seen military service as a plus." -- Bill Clinton, who equated the service of presidential hopefuls John McCain, a naval aviator who spent more than five years as a prisoner of war in the "Hanoi Hilton," and Al Gore, who spent five months in Vietnam as an Army journalist -- shooting pictures
"His [Reagan's] success proved that great leadership does not depend on intellectual or historical sophistication. What is needed, above all, is the right set of convictions and the courage to stand by them. Mr. Reagan's beliefs about freedom and tyranny were uniquely rooted in the American experience, and his courage reflected the quiet self-confidence of the American heartland. His was truly a U.S. presidency that changed the world." -- Joseph Shattan
"The Microsoft case has left many asking 'what's next?' but a better question is, 'who's next?'." -- National Taxpayer Union President John Berthoud
"Americans who value freedom had better be more concerned about the gun control crowd than the criminals. The criminals want your money. The Neo-Totalitarians want your Freedom." -- Charlie Reese
"Leviathan marches ahead towards totalitarianism on a one-way street, growing stronger with every step. Who among those asking to become president has the vision and the courage to rescue America from Leviathan?" -- Linda Bowles
"Washington's crusade against Microsoft has fulfilled its purpose, serving as a great lever to pry open the wallets of Silicon Valley. Where three years ago the technology plutocrats spent their surplus income on racing yachts and Ferraris and charity, now they patriotically send donations to Washington to support the fixer class and its retinue in the style to which it would like to become accustomed. Steve Case of AOL likes to say the future of technology will be decided in the political arena rather than the marketplace. Be careful what you wish for." -- Wall Street Journal
"I want to fall on the floor laughing -- imagining Hillary Clinton working well in the Senate with everybody else! Oh, give me a break. I've already joked in print that they would need to build her a private cloakroom on the Mall. This is not a woman who has any ability to deal with the mass of humanity. She is the most arrogant, the most moralistic, the most sermonizing and annoying person on earth...." -- Feminist icon Camille Paglia
"Whether it's in military, recreational or sporting form, anything shaped like a gun or knife is banned." -- Minnesota government school superintendent Dick Magaard on his decision to ban a yearbook photograph of a female senior sitting next to a small cannon located outside a local VFW post. The student chose the location because she plans to join the Army after graduation.
"As for [that truck almost hitting George Bush], political experts say that having your opponent almost get hit by a tractor trailer is just one of the many benefits Al Gore will receive after his recent endorsement by the AFL-CIO." -- Saturday Night Live comic Colin Quinn
"Clinton held a virtual town hall meeting on the internet last night. He admits that he knows nothing about computers and the internet. He thought Amazon.com was Janet Reno's email address." -- Jay Leno
"Yesterday it was the Annual New York City Marathon. The winner from the men's division was a runner from Kenya. So, Hillary is right, you don't need to be from here to run." -- David Letterman
web posted November 8, 1999
"[You can trust me] because I'm not running for anything." -- Bill Clinton
"Bicameralism is...conducive to gridlock. But there are 6 billion people on this planet and about 5.7 billion of them would be better off if they lived under governments more susceptible to gridlock. Gridlock is not an American problem, it is an American achievement." -- George Will
"Moral government rests absolutely upon partisanship. ... We live in fact in a classic period of ideological-partisan warfare, which began with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 and in which two radically differing worldviews are engaged in an epochal struggle to determine which should rule the nation. This is a large event, and it is a noble one. " -- Michael Kelly
"The greatest threat to the planet is not too many people, but too much statism." -- Stephen Moore
"...[I]t is the leftist anti-gunners, and not 'crazy gun nuts' or guns in the hands of law abiding, responsible adults, that kill more people each year. Shortsighted, ignorant policies -- not bullets -- have consistently taken more lives annually than any crime spree or assault weapon." -- Jon E. Dougherty
"[There is] a band of journalists who defend the president at practically
every turn, who disparage virtually his every accuser, and who treat almost
any criticism of his administration as a threat to enlightened government.
.... Margaret Carlson of Time, Eleanor Clift of Newsweek, Al Hunt of the
Wall Street Journal, Lars-Erik Nelson of the Daily News, Joe Conason of
the New York
Observer -- these are the ones who will stand by Clinton until 'the last
dog dies.' They are, indeed, the courtier press." -- Jay Nordlinger
in the Weekly Standard
"Y'all must be bumfuzzled." -- Bill Clinton addressing a convention of school teachers
"I think [Mr. Clinton's] accomplishments are going to loom very large in the history books. ... I think the accomplishments rank right up there." -- Al Gore
"[Republican leadership] seems to be KKK compliant. It shows up when Trent Lott, the majority leader of the U.S. Senate, fraternizes with white supremacists and when South Carolina refuses to lower the Confederate flag that flies over its capitol." -- NAACP Chairman Julian Bond
"After turning Mr. Clinton, the predator, into the Good Father, Ms. Wolf will try to turn Mr. Gore, a good father, into more of a predator." -- Maureen Dowd
"With all due respect to Mr. Chirac, the last time I checked, no nation was counting on the safety and reliability of the French nuclear arsenal to guarantee its security. Many do, however, depend on the U.S. for nuclear guarantees." -- Sen. Jesse Helms (R) responding to Socialist French president Chirac's criticism of the Senate's rejection of the CTB Treaty
"Al Gore said that he plans to keep controversial feminist author Naomi Wolf on as an advisor. One of her more controversial views is that children should be taught masturbation in our schools as an alternative to abstinence. Forget teaching it in the schools. How about teaching it in the Oval Office?" -- Jay Leno
"It's good to have a drink now and then, good to have a steak or smoke a cigarette," -- Sharon Stone, who also praised marijuana as "terrific" but slammed cocaine as "an evil, horrible, awful thing"
web posted November 1, 1999
"Joe, since the president spoke out so commendably about the murder of adult homosexual Matt Shepard in Wyoming, I'm wondering what was his reaction to the repeated rape and murder of 13-year-old Jesse Dirkhising by two adult homosexual men in Arkansas," asked Baltimore radio personality Les Kinsolving. White House spokesman Joe Lockhart responded, "I don't know that the president is aware of that circumstance." Mr. Kinsolving then asked, "As his media adviser, were you surprised that while the murder of an adult, Shepard, received enormous coverage in the big media, this multiple rape and murder of a child went so widely unreported?" Lockhart responded, "I try to keep my media criticisms to myself."
"Our vaunted two-party system has become a snare and a delusion, a fraud upon the nation," -- Pat Buchanan
"I understand the disappointment and anger you felt toward President Clinton. I feel it myself. I also feel that the American people want to move on, and turn the page and focus on the future, not the past." -- Al Gore to Bill Bradley during the Democratic candidates' debate
"While conducting research into the history, personalities and techniques of 'sensitivity training,' I have found convincing evidence that the U.S. Naval Academy has been indoctrinating a future generation of Naval officers in a political correctness, actually a cultural Marxism, that has a long dark history and portends a dangerous future. And all of this is being done under the 'cover' of a 'leadership and ethics' program that has the blessing of high-ranking Navy Flag officers and other honorable and well-intentioned Naval officers, active duty and retired." -- Commander Gerald L. Atkinson
"A huge number of [Clinton's] executive orders are excessive and unwise [and] they [should] be tested in court.... I think many could be found unconstitutional." -- Orrin Hatch
"Let's suppose that Congress does vote to ban private ownership of handguns. From henceforth, the manufacture, sale and importation of handguns are forbidden by federal law. Why, that's a strategy that has worked wonders for illegal narcotics." -- Jill Labbe
"What does it say about the system when one candidate raises more than $50 million. Is that obscene?" -- ABC's Charlie Gibson apparently dismissing the fact that massive number of small donations made of George W. Bush's total
"When I am out of office, I will have a lot to say about this. Until then, I am going to honor my commitment to all of you. To go back to work. I haven't challenged anything. Including things I consider to be questionable. Because I think it is wrong." -- Bill Clinton, when asked at his first press conference in months, about Judge Susan Webber Wright's assessment of a fine for his perjury in the Paula Corbin Jones sexual harassment lawsuit
"Donald Trump? I wouldn't vote for Donald Trump, because halfway through his term he would leave us for a younger, more beautiful country." -- comedian Chris Rock
"I feel bad for Pete Rose, you know, lifetime ban from baseball. The mistake he made was gambling. If he was involved with drugs and hookers, he'd still be playing ball," -- David Letterman
