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A bi-weekly compilation of the latest outrageous, sometimes humorous, 
quotes in the liberal media.

Liberals Concede Pro-Hillary Bias

Liberal columnist Jack Germond: "She's going to start to get a little static from the Republicans on the Terry McAuliffe putting up the $1.3 million for their house. No other Senate candidate could do that and get away with it. If that were a Republican we'd all be screaming at the press. If one of Charlie's [Krauthammer] yahoo [conservative] friends were getting that kind of money, we'd all be saying that's illegal."
NPR's Nina Totenberg: "Well, that's not illegal. We'd all be saying it smells."
-- Exchange on the September 11 Inside Washington.

Tough Query on the New House

"Do you expect them to participate in, oh, let's say, stoop sales and bake sales?"
-- Last question from CBS's This Morning co-host Thalia Assuras to Clinton Smith, manager of the town which includes the Chappaqua area, September 7.

Hillary, the FALN Pardon Victim

"Whether or not the First Lady is running, Republicans have pounced on a new issue to use against her. It involves a decision made by her husband."
-- CBS Evening News anchor John Roberts introducing an August 30 story, a week before Hillary said she opposed the clemency deal.

"The prisoners have yet to answer the White House offer, leaving the President on the defensive, critics in Congress calling for an investigation, and the First Lady burned by a decision she says was not her doing."
-- NBC reporter Fred Francis concluding a story run on the August 31 editions of Today and MSNBC's The News with Brian Williams.

Peacemakers Release Terrorists?

"Most people of Puerto Rican descent [points to self] agree with peacemakers ranging from Jimmy Carter to Nelson Mandela to Cardinal O'Connor that the President was right in trying to close this violent chapter in American history.... These radicals now command virtually zero, no political popular support among the Puerto Rican people and they never will again unless opportunistic politicians, whether they are married to the President or otherwise, while trying to show how tough they are on crime, remain deaf to the President's compassionate and common sense proposal."
-- Geraldo Rivera on CNBC's Upfront Tonight, September 7.

They Can't Buy Hillary's Line....

"You have to give the Clintons credit. They will try anything. First of all, you have this clemency deal, which all law enforcement agencies oppose and has this terrible aroma about it, but particularly with Mrs. Clinton seeking a Senate seat, or likely to, and they try it anyway in hopes, it seems to me fairly clearly, of courting favor with some group there. The thing backfires, at which point you have this: Mrs. Clinton comes forward and says, I didn't know, my husband never told me, I didn't know. And so, and now she gets to, and she's going to back out of the deal, expecting that A, we'll believe it was a clean thing the first time and second, we'll believe that she didn't know anything about it. I can't imagine people being gullible enough to buy any of it."
-- Fox News Washington Managing Editor Brit Hume, September 5 Fox News Sunday.

....Oh, Yes They Can, and Did

"The President and First Lady aren't exactly seeing eye to eye this Sunday. The issue: clemency for a group of Puerto Rican activists."
-- ABC World News Tonight/Sunday anchor Carole Simpson introducing a September 5 story.

"The White House announced today that a dozen Puerto Rican nationalists, imprisoned for conspiracy and weapons charges, have agreed to renounce violence in return for clemency offered by President Clinton. Mrs. Clinton, who's a very likely New York Senate candidate, has declared publicly against clemency."
-- World News Tonight anchor Peter Jennings, September 7.

"This all leaves the First Lady caught in political quicksand. Her Senate campaign spokesman said Mrs. Clinton had no idea the Puerto Ricans had actually accepted the clemency condition two days before she declared the offer ought to be withdrawn. She is still in hot water in New York with Democratic elected officials. For Hillary Clinton, the political damage has already been done."
-- ABC's Ann Compton, September 8 Good Morning America.

"At prisons around the country today the Puerto Rican nationalists granted clemency by President Clinton were set free. Their release has been quite controversial, pitting Mrs. Clinton, who is running for the Senate, against her husband. All but two of the nationalists are expected to return to Puerto Rico."
-- Peter Jennings, September 10 World News Tonight.

Honest Janet Needs to Party

"Now Janet Reno's thing is that she doesn't know many people in this town. I don't think she's done much to socialize, to befriend people, to build a constituency, even with the Clintons. You know, I heard Donna Shalala say the other day she [Reno] now has Abe Lincoln status. People just assume she's honest, honest Janet Reno."
-- Washington Post writer Juan Williams on Fox News Sunday, September 5.

Jimmy Stewart in Satin Shorts?

"He may soon have as much cash on hand as the Vice President does. More important, he's offering a gauzy but uplifting call to nobility in politics, pledging to lead fellow baby boomers in a quest for racial harmony in a more civil society. Bradley is no saint, but he's an old-fashioned kind, straight out of Boys' Life: clean-living, level-headed, perfectly credentialed."
-- Newsweek reporter Howard Fineman, September 13.

"Bradley was that rare athlete who achieved a kind of larger mythology. He was Jimmy Stewart in satin shorts: the small-town son of a banker, self-effacing and studious, clean-cut and Christian, dazzling on the court but so gifted away from it that he put off the pros for Oxford....The clean image was no act: even in his dorm, while other kids tuned in to Dylan or the Beach Boys, Bradley listened to My Fair Lady."
-- Newsweek reporter Matt Bai, same issue.

ABC's Platform for Clinton Toady

"You've said that one of the things that really distinguishes you from Vice President Gore is your life experience. Let me play devil's advocate. In your adult lives, you've both served the better part of two decades in the Senate, both had reputations as cerebral and centrist, willing to tackle complex issues, and the real difference in your adult lives is you spent ten years in the NBA. He spent eight years, or will be eight years, as Vice President."
-- ABC's George Stephanopoulos to Bill Bradley in a September 8 Good Morning America interview, which he conducted alone for the show without any other regular host.

"The issue of privacy most recently in this campaign has been raised with the whole issue of George W. Bush and cocaine. Today Reverend Jesse Jackson said that George W. Bush should answer all these questions because of the double standard, he says because young black men are put in jail for the same offense. Do you agree with that?"

"But I guess that's Reverend Jackson's point. He's saying that this is a criminal act and other people are thrown in jail for it."
-- Subsequent questions, same interview.

Could You Be A Bigger Liberal?

"On health care, what you say is important to you, the Vice President has come out. He's talked about coverage for every child in this country by 2005. He's talked about doing something about Medicare, prescription drug benefits. Can you really do much better than that?"
-- CNN's Judy Woodruff to Bill Bradley, Sept. 10 Inside Politics.

Moderate with Liberal Appeal?

"Bradley tried to separate himself from the Vice President of an administration plagued by scandal. What he is: a moderate Democrat appealing to the left wing, stressing racial equality, campaign finance reform and gun control."
-- NBC reporter Anne Thompson on MSNBC's The News with Brian Williams, September 8.

"Whopping" 0.4 Percent Tax Cut

"There was no barbecue for President Clinton today. Instead he spent his Labor Day attacking the GOP's tax cut plan.... Republicans want a whopping $792 billion tax cut over ten years. Sounds good, except Democrats fear that a big cut will affect some social programs. And today the President said it would mean a shortfall for the nation's public schools."
-- Len Cannon, Sept. 6 MSNBC's News with Brian Williams.

Reality Check:
"In 2000, Americans' taxes would be cut by 0.4 percent, in 2001 by 0.9 percent, in 2002 by 1.8 percent. The tax cuts are not scheduled to start providing real relief until the next two presidential elections have passed. That is a modest tax sliver, not a gigantic tax cut."
-- Cato Institute's Stephen Moore, Sept. 12 Washington Times.

No Tolerance Test for Democrats

"How about [Gov. Christie] Whitman for Vice President on the GOP ticket? Texas and New Jersey, conservative and moderate, man and woman. Got to love it. Except for one little thing. She supports abortion rights big time. She even vetoed a bill banning late-term abortions. Putting Whitman on the ticket would make a powerful statement. But what kind of statement would it be? To moderate voters, particularly women, it would be a signal that the Republicans are flexible and tolerant on the abortion issue."
-- CNN analyst William Schneider, September 12 Late Edition.

Nice Wording

"When we come back, is William Clinton a lame duck or a fighting cock?"
-- John McLaughlin plugging an upcoming segment, September 11 McLaughlin Group.

Publisher: L. Brent Bozell
Editors: Brent H. Baker, Tim Graham
Media Analysts: Jessica Anderson, Brian Boyd,
Geoffrey Dickens, Mark Drake, Paul Smith, Brad Wilmouth
Research Associate: Kristina Sewell
Interns: Ken Shepherd