backtop

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

November 25, 2002

(Vol. Fifteen; No. 24) 

Moyers Rants Against the GOP's "Right-Wing....Radical Ideology"

"The entire federal government - the Congress, the executive, the courts - is united behind a right-wing agenda for which George W. Bush believes he now has a mandate. That agenda includes the power of the state to force pregnant women to surrender control over their own lives. It includes using the taxing power to transfer wealth from working people to the rich. It includes giving corporations a free hand to eviscerate the environment and control the regulatory agencies meant to hold them accountable. And it includes secrecy on a scale you cannot imagine. 
"Above all, it means judges with a political agenda appointed for life. If you like the Supreme Court that put George W. Bush in the White House, you will swoon over what's coming. And if you like God in government, get ready for the Rapture....
"So it's a heady time in Washington, a heady time for piety, profits and military power, all joined at the hip by ideology and money. Don't forget the money....Republicans out-raised Democrats by $184 million and they came up with the big prize: monopoly control of the American government and the power of the state to turn their radical ideology into the law of the land. Quite a bargain at any price."
- Bill Moyers on PBS's Now, November 8.

Sounds Good to Eleanor

"Bill Moyers is taking the Republicans at their word. On the taxing issue, he is using fairly lively language to portray... the tax cuts that the Republican party promotes, which basically aid the top one percent in this country. And if you spend your money that way, you can't spend it on programs that are targeted to the middle class and the poor."
- Newsweek's Eleanor Clift defending Moyers' anti-conservative diatribe, on FNC's Hannity & Colmes, Nov. 12.

Time's Reality: Conservative Bias

"Even if Democrats pull together on some big issues, they'll still have to overcome GOP bully pulpits in the White House and Congress - and a new reality: conservative bias in the media. 'You've got a whole network [Fox News] out there that's banging for Republicans every day,' says a senior elected Democrat. 'They're No. 1 in the ratings, and they follow everything the President does all the time. How do you get around that?'"
- Time staff writer Josh Tyrangiel, November 18 edition.

Conservatism Cost GOP Senate

"There's a lot of talk about bipartisanship and compromise here tonight, but that was also true in 2001 when President Bush came into office and when he pushed a conservative agenda, Peter, that ended up alienating Vermont Republican Senator Jim Jeffords who switched parties and lost the Republicans control of the Senate."
- ABC White House correspondent Terry Moran on World News Tonight, November 6.

"Controversial" Tom Delay...

"In the House, one controversial member is getting a promotion, Texas Republican Tom DeLay - from whip to Majority Leader now."
- Tom Brokaw on the November 13 NBC Nightly News.

...vs. "History-Making" Pelosi

"Last night we profiled the House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, new to that post. Tonight, the Democrats make a little history of their own by voting for Nancy Pelosi of California, the first female party leader ever."
- Brokaw the next night.

Pelosi: "You Go Girl!"

Ann Curry: "Today House Democrats are poised to pick Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi as Minority Leader. The California Democrat would be the first woman ever elected a party leader in Congress. It is now 7:07 a.m. You are now up to date from the news desk. Let's now turn back to Matt, Katie, and Al."
Katie Couric: "Is it okay to say, 'You go girl!'?"
Curry: "I think it's okay. It's gonna happen in either case." 
- NBC's Today, November 14.

A Little Premature

"I'm constantly amazed when people complain about the so-called liberal bias in the press, and there are still people making a living complaining about the liberal bias in the press. Our good friends, Brent Bozell and company for example, who run the Media Research Center, and I keep wondering 'When are you gonna declare victory fellas?'... Sooner or later I think we're all going to have to acknowledge that the myth of liberal bias in the press is just that, it's a myth. May have been true at one time, but it's been beaten out of 'em."
- Newly re-hired Time magazine columnist Jack White on C-SPAN's Washington Journal, November 15.

Keeping An Open Mind

"The war policy is a crock. This is a hugely risky operation for potential gains that probably won't justify the risk."
- Newsweek international news editor Michael Hirsh at a Yale forum on November 6, as quoted by Jeremy Kutner in the next day's Yale Daily News.

Helen "Who Do I Hate?" Thomas

"I censored myself for 50 years....Now I wake up and ask myself, 'Who do I hate today?'...I have never covered a President who actually wanted to go to war. Bush's policy of pre-emptive war is immoral - such a policy would legitimize Pearl Harbor. It's as if they learned none of the lessons from Vietnam....Where is the outrage?" 
- Hearst White House columnist Helen Thomas speaking at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on Nov. 4 and quoted on MIT's Web site two days later.

"You are leaving the impression that Iraqi lives, the human cost doesn't mean anything."
- Helen Thomas to President Bush at his November 7 press conference.

Helen Thomas: "Does the President consider this [election outcome] a mandate to fulfill his agenda? Going to war with Iraq, privatizing Social Security, weakening the Civil Service Commission and so forth?"
Press Secretary Ari Fleischer: "Helen, you sound like a commercial that didn't work."
- Exchange at White House press briefing on November 6.

You Were Robbed, President Gore

"Were you cheated out of the Presidency?"
"But you almost were President! Why aren't you, I don't know, bitter? Why aren't you, you know, why don't you say, 'I was this close [holds fingers together], I won the popular vote!'? How can you sit here this calmly now and say 'Oh well, it's like a football game' or something?"
- Barbara Walters' questions to Al Gore in an interview shown on ABC's 20/20 on November 15.

Quite a Prophet

"This race was fairly close. I was out in Minnesota last week, and [Senator Paul] Wellstone was moving ahead, but it was still close. I don't think that this is going to be close now. I don't think that the absentee ballots, for instance, will be decisive. I think Mondale will win going away."
- Prediction by Newsweek Senior Editor Jonathan Alter on MSNBC on October 27 after learning that Walter Mondale would oppose Republican Norm Coleman in the Senate election. Coleman won, 50% to 48%.

U.S. Keeping Company with Iran

"It is important to point out that every other nation in the world has joined the international agreements prohibiting the execution of juvenile offenders....What does it say about the United States that it is virtually alone? One other point: since 1990 juvenile offenders are only known to have been executed in the Congo, Iran, Pakistan, Yemen, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia and the United States. The United States outstrips them by far. Is that the company the United States wants to keep?"
- ABC's Michel Martin on whether the teenaged sniper suspect should face death, on This Week, November 10.

Liberal Confusion on Tax Cut

"Greenspan Throws Damper on Permanent Tax-Cut Plan."
- Headline in the Washington Post, November 14.

vs.

"Fed Chief Says He Backs Bush on the Tax Cut."
- New York Times headline the same day.

Save an Iraqi - Drive a Yugo

Larry King: "We [Americans] try to do good, don't we? I mean, we're basically good."
Bill Maher: "No. Not for the rest of the world....Iraqis, I think, feel that if we drove smaller cars, maybe we wouldn't have to kill them for their oil."
- Exchange on CNN's Larry King Live, November 1.

Capitalists Just Like al-Qaeda

"Let us find a way to resist fundamentalism that leads to violence - fundamentalism of all kinds, in al-Qaeda and within our government....Our fundamentalism is business, the unfettered spread of our economic interests throughout the globe. Our resistance to this war should be our resistance to profit at the cost of human life."
- Actress Susan Sarandon at an anti-Iraq war protest in Washington, DC shown live on C-SPAN October 26.

Stranger than a Mule in a Tutu

"We could be in for a long night with the Senate battle as tight as a Botox smile."
"Polls closed one-half hour ago in Arkansas. We can tell you that race is crackling like a hickory fire."
"A big win for the Republicans, and they'll be breaking out the longnecks in Republican headquarters in Texas and elsewhere, not to mention the White House itself, although Lesley [Stahl] says they pop the caps only on Dr. Pepper ten, two and four there."
- Dan Rather during CBS's election coverage on Nov. 5.