On the Media Double Standard...
"There's a veritable news blackout on this story. If this were a Republican administration, images of fascism, the comparisons to Nazi Germany would be flying thick and fast. This would be front page news. But its's Bill Clinton, so they turn their heads."
--Ed Vrdolyak, the attorney for Patricia and Glenn Mendoza, speaking on the Mark
Davis radio talk show in Dallas. Washington Times, July 11, 1996. Page A7.
On Setting the Record Straight...
"I urge all broadcast stations to reject and discontinue airing a fraudulent and deceptive political advertisement created and paid for by the AFL-CIO. This ad is blatantly untrue, libelous in its knowing falsehood and reprehensible in its malicious intent to deceive American citizens. Stations airing this ad betray their civic duty as federal broadcast licensees and invite legal action."
--Bill Paxson, National Republican Congressional Committee chairman, concerning
the ad from the AFL-CIO which accuses Republicans of an effort to "destroy"
Medicare by voting "to cut $270 billion from Medicare to pay for tax cuts for the
wealthy." For the record, Republicans proposed increasing Medicare spending by
7 percent to 8 percent each year. But since those increases were less than the
increases expected under the current system, the unions have seized upon corrupt
Washington parlance and called them "cuts". Washington Times, July 11, 1996.
Page A14.
On Where to Draw the Line...
"Every child deserves an education, even an expensive one in the case of a child with a disability. But at some point, providing education for a few begins to infringe on the rights of too many others."
--Art Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of
Pennsylvannia, writing in the June 30 editions of the Philadelphia Inquirer.
His statement concerned school districts that are paying hundreds of thousands
of dollars per year to educate a single child with a severe disability.
Washington Times, July 12, 1996. Page A2.
On Who Exactly is Pandering to Tobacco Interests...
"Throughout most of my life, I raised tobacco. I want you to know that my own hands, all of my life, I put it in the plant beds and transferred it! I've hoed it! I've dug in it! I've sprayed it! I've chopped it! I've shredded it, spiked it, put it in the barn and stripped it and sold it!"
--Vice President Al Gore, during the 1988 campaign beseeching North Carolina's
tobacco farmers to support his quest for the presidency. Gore has been roundly
criticizing Bob Dole and Republicans for accepting money from the tobacco industry.
In May, the Democratic National Committee provided R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. a list
of state party affiliates so the tobacco giant could split its $40,000 soft money
contribution into four allotments of $10,000, to avoid scrutiny. Washington Times,
July 9 , 1996. Page A16.
On What Makes Us Different...
"The taking of innocent life has been transformed from crime into constitutional right; sexual relations outside of marriage are sanctioned so long as they are 'safe'; religious expression is largely expelled from public square, and a right to kill ourselves, or at least to help kill grandma, is proffered as simply another aspect of autonomy or choice. These are, indeed, cultural battlegrounds, clashes sometimes portrayed as pitting the 'traditional' against the 'progressive', but more tellingly revealed as between those who accept an objective source of right and wrong and those who don't."
--Douglas W. Kmiec, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame, writing in
the June 3 issue of the Chicago Tribune. Washington Times, July 8, 1996. Page A2.
On the Expanding File System...
"Their files were being [rifled] through, and a lot of these people lost their jobs shortly thereafter. Obviously, somebody very high up has something to do with this. This has gone on too long \005 and this didn't just stop at the White House; it went through every agency. Craig Livingstone clearly can't be responsible for [all] that."
--Representative Susan Molinari, in an interview on "Fox News Sunday" on July 7, 1996.
The comment concerns career employees who are supposed to be protected from
political changes. But the New York Post said in its July 7, 1996 edition that it
had documents that "show Clinton appointees clearly believed it was their due to
root out those whose political sympathies were suspect." Washington Times,
July 8, 1996. Page A3.
On Finding the Facts...
"Of course, little mention is being made about the tobacco crops on Al Gore's Tennessee farm. Or Bill Clinton's appetite for cigars. Or, perhaps most important, the Wall Street Journal's discovery that righteous Democrats concealed tobacco industry contributions by disseminating $65,000 among four state party organizations."
--Editorial in the Detroit News, July 9, 1996. From C-NEWS on July 10, 1996.
On Playing by the Rules...
"It's a sign of the times that, in Cecil County, Maryland, basketball is now played by some very unusual rules. If one basketball team is ten points ahead of the other, additional baskets don't count until the underdog team catches up. No record is kept of who scores how many baskets, so no player can ever be recognized as the star of the team."
--Phyllis Schlafly Report -- Phonics vs. WholeLanguage. From C-NEWS July 10, 1996.