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

Free in France

"Here in France, they have created a child care system that would amaze most Americans. Every child in this country, from the richest family down to the poorest, gets a chance at the same high standard of day care, preschool, and health care. Not only is it free, or at low cost to everyone, but the quality is better than what most youngsters get in the United States....Next fall, Benjamin will be able to leave the [government nursery] and move on to the next stage of the French government's child care system, the école maternelle, or preschool, which is totally free....There's one in virtually every neighborhood in the country, and almost every single three-to five-year-old French child goes all day -- for free."
-- CBS reporter Harold Dow on Street Stories, July 2.

PBS on the Reagan Years

"Thanks to a cartoon character called Col. Oliver North, scandal hit Ronald Reagan, too, but it didn't hurt him either. Though North obligingly took the fall, many said that Reagan was the true culprit because he must have known. But they were the same people who had already made Reagan famous for not knowing anything. They couldn't have it both ways. So all Reagan had to do was look as vague as usual and he was invulnerable....

"But there was only one phrase for the way the two famous men [Reagan and Gorbachev] got on: they got on famously. Incredulous observers said that although their double act looked like Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, the real comparison was with Francis and his talking mule. The sophisticated world laughed when the suave Gorbachev and the bumbling Reagan met at Reykjavik. "
-- BBC journalist Clive James narrating his PBS series Fame in the 20th Century, July 10.

Concerned & Unconcerned About Taxes

Tax Plan worries Lieberman 'Real people' advise senator
-- Washington Times, July 12

Beyond the Beltway, Clinton Tax Plan Not a Hot Topic for Some Constituents
-- Washington Post, same day

Schneider's Shock Over the Clinton Plan

"A lot of Americans do not believe this program's going to work. A majority say it's not going to improve the economy even if it passes. But even more people, 55 percent, don't believe that this economic plan is going to reduce the deficit. Now that's a surprise because that's the one thing it's almost certain to do."
-- CNN analyst William Schneider on Inside Politics, July 1.

Lottery Hypocrites

"A lot of people who shudder at the prospect of higher gasoline taxes gladly plunk down many times the amount that would cost on lottery tickets, the budget deficit be damned."
-- CNN reporter Gene Randall, July 6 World News.

The Post's Cabinet

"For more than a decade, many domestic Cabinet posts have served as dumping grounds for slackbrained political buddies or party faithful. While Clinton too feels the pull of patronage, he may simply have smarter friends."
-- Washington Post "Outlook" section editor Katherine Boo, June 20.

We Should All Be Dead

"Down in the polls, looking wimpish? Bombing a Third World country always helps....In a civilized world, Clinton wouldn't be cheered. He trampled on international law by killing more Iraqi innocents, a crime we've grown accustomed to....The USA in its bombing raids on Grenada, Panama, and Iraq, and its refusal to obey international law to give Haitian refugees a hearing before returning them, often to impending doom, shows what outlaws we have become....If death plots on foreign leaders were justification for bombing raids and killing civilians, most U.S. citizens would be dead right now."
-- USA Today columnist and former Inquiry page editor Barbara Reynolds, July 2.

USA Today on the 1980s

"Henry Kravis had to do the deal, both friends and foes say. The legendary dealmaker wasn't about to let anyone else mastermind the takeover that came to symbolize the greed-is-good decade of the 1980s."
-- USA Today reporters Beth Belton and Del Jones, July 6.

"A jealous guardian of his power, Byrd is struggling to reverse a decade-long pattern of scaled-back spending for education, infrastructure and other domestic priorities."
-- USA Today's Leslie Phillips, June 21.

Another Buchanan Fan

"I think he's a jerk and his politics are repugnant."
-- WWRC Radio Program Director and former NBC Radio reporter Peter Laufer on Pat Buchanan, July 5 Washington Times.

Chancellor: Media Reviews vs. Reality

John Chancellor, Giving The Voice of Reason a Rest
-- Washington Post, June 29

"His [final] commentary, scheduled for broadcast tonight....was like the other commentaries in his 10 years as the network's resident pundit: 90 seconds of clarity and conciseness."
-- Former Boston Globe editorial page editor and Washington reporter Martin F. Nolan in a July 8 front page tribute.

vs.

"The overall tax burden for Americans, federal, state, and local, is actually quite low....The fact is Americans could pay more taxes and the country wouldn't go down the tube. Taxpayers don't believe this because they are being conned by the politicians... The truth is that the United States needs higher taxes and can afford them. Some political leaders are now starting to say that, but until more say it, the country will remain in trouble."
-- Chancellor commentary, April 17 1990 NBC Nightly News.

"It's short of soap, so there are lice in hospitals. It's short of pantyhose, so women's legs go bare. It's short snowsuits, so babies stay home in winter....The problem isn't communism; nobody even talked about communism this week. The problem is shortages."
-- Chancellor on the Soviet Union, August 21, 1991.

"Greenpeace, the public interest organization, believes that the Iraqi death toll, civilian and military, before and after the war, may be as high as 198,000. Allied military dead are counted in the low hundreds. The disparity is huge and somewhat embarrassing. And that's commentary for this evening, Tom."
-- Chancellor, March 12, 1992.

Flood Ratherism

"The Mighty Mississippi. There isn't a dry `i' in the word. It means big river. And the river is growing bigger by the minute."
-- Dan Rather reporting live from the flood, July 12 CBS Evening News.

-- L. Brent Bozell III; Publisher
-- Brent H. Baker, Tim Graham; Editors
-- Andrew Gabron, Kristin Johnson, Steve Kaminski, Mark Rogers, Bill Thompson; Media Analysts
-- Kathleen Ruff, Circulation Manager;
-- David Felton, David Muska, Robert Vane; Interns