Lingua publica

The good and the bad...

web posted October 25, 2004

"We did have a completely different class of people in 1776. When this country was formed you couldn't find 10 people on the continent who thought that it was the responsibility of the federal government to provide them with a job or health care. Know this...transport today's average American back to 1776 and the Revolutionary War would never have happened." -- Neal Boortz

"Recruits to Muslim terror are made by Muslims who preach evil in God's name and by terrorist victories, not by America fighting back." -- Dennis Prager

"The behavior of candidates for political office often reflects what they are seeing in their private polls. That being so, I suspect that the Kerry-Edwards private polls look pretty grim, unlike the public polls which purport to show them running neck-and-neck with the Bush-Cheney ticket." -- Michael Reagan

"I do wish Kerry would explain sometime why it is OK for his faith to shape his stands on social welfare programs and the environment when he vows never to let his stands on abortion and embryonic stem cells be shaped by that same faith." -- Jeff Jacoby

"I did have a chance to assess John Kerry once more and now the only thing I could conclude: This is not a good man. Of course, I am speaking as a mom, and a pretty indignant mom. This is not a good man. What a cheap and tawdry political trick." -- Lynn Cheney on the politicization of her daughter, Mary.

"Some of us may disagree with [President Bush], even strongly, but we're never in doubt about where he's coming from, and where he's absolutely determined to go. ... There are a lot more serious problems than getting your words twisted. Like not supporting the troops in the field at the moment of decision, whether or not you agree with the war they're fighting at the time." -- Paul Greenberg

"I love that bit in every debate where John Kerry pledges to 'hunt down and kill the terrorists.' You can see him thinking, 'Must remember to say "kill" very loudly and in a deep voice. And sound as if I'm not gonna be some pantywaist president who uses special forces or unmanned drones. I'm gonna kill -- sorry, KILL -- 'em myself.' This is to dispel suspicions that in reality he would hunt down the terrorists and serve them with a subpoena, possibly from one of the less robust judicial systems, such as the Hague or Massachusetts, and possibly for mail fraud, if the whole mass murder thing looks like it won't stick." -- Mark Steyn

"Donald Trump got some humbling news Monday when NBC informed him his reality television show 'The Apprentice' has slipped twenty percent in viewer ratings. He knows little and thinks he knows everything. It clearly points to a political career." -- Argus Hamilton

"Imagine President John Kerry at the Berlin Wall. 'Mr. Gorbachev...I challenge you to get to an emotional place where you can imagine a different kind of non-wall reality, that fully respects the 'wallness' of your current reality, yet takes us on a spiritual journey in which'..." -- Ann Coulter

"Police in Pennsylvania are now looking for a man who robbed a bank wearing a George Bush mask. He was gonna wear a John Kerry mask, but apparently he couldn't get his head through the door." -- Jay Leno

"On more than one occasion, Senator Kerry has referred to the fight at Tora Bora in Afghanistan during late 2001 as a missed opportunity for America. He claims that our forces had Osama bin Laden cornered and allowed him to escape. ... As commander of the allied forces in the Middle East, I was responsible for the operation at Tora Bora, and I can tell you that the senator's understanding of events doesn't square with reality. ... Contrary to Senator Kerry, President Bush never 'took his eye off the ball' when it came to Osama bin Laden. The war on terrorism has a global focus. It cannot be divided into separate and unrelated wars, one in Afghanistan and another in Iraq. Both are part of the same effort to capture and kill terrorists before they are able to strike America again, potentially with weapons of mass destruction. Terrorist cells are operating in some 60 countries, and the United States, in coordination with dozens of allies, is waging this war on many fronts." -- General Tommy Franks

"[W]hen was terrorism only a nuisance? Was it a nuisance four years ago, when the USS Cole was attacked and we almost lost the ship and we did lose 17 sailors? Was it a nuisance six years ago when they attacked simultaneously two of our embassies in East Africa and killed hundreds of people, including many Americans? Was terrorism just a nuisance 11 years ago, when they first bombed the World Trade Center? Or 16 years ago, when Pan Am Flight 103 was blown out of the skies over Lockerbie, Scotland? Or 21 years ago, when a truck bomb was driven into a barracks in Beirut and killed 241 American Marines?" -- U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney

web posted October 18, 2004

"We have to get back to the place we were, where terrorists are not the focus of our lives, but they're a nuisance. ... I mean, [September 11th] didn't change me much at all." -- John Kerry, in an interview with The New York Times Magazine

"Senator Kerry talked of reducing terrorism to -- quote -- nuisance -- end quote; and compared it to prostitution and illegal gambling. I couldn't disagree more. Our goal is not to reduce terror to some acceptable level of nuisance. Our goal is to defeat terror by staying on the offensive, destroying terrorists and spreading freedom and liberty around the world." -- U.S. President George W. Bush

"When pro-Kerry commentators solemnly pronounce Debate Round 2 to have been 'a draw' -- you know George Bush won that round."-- William Safire

"Congratulations to the people of Afghanistan, who have just held the first free election in their history. As in Australia, the Afghan election was a defeat for al-Qa'ida -- in this case simply by virtue of taking place." -- James Taranto

"Whether you're talking about an assembly line worker or the chairman of the board, attendance records like Senators Edwards' and Kerry's would get anyone else fired. ... Based on their records, neither John Kerry nor John Edwards deserves a job promotion." -- Linda Chavez

"[I]s it too much to hope that campaign trail accusations bear some resemblance to the facts?" -- Paul Jacob

"I have been involved in the war on terrorism for two decades, and in my view no world leader has better understood the stakes in this global war than President Bush. Mr. Kerry is free to quote my comments about Iraq. But for the sake of honesty he should also point out that I have repeatedly said, including in all my speeches in recent weeks, that President Bush made a correct and courageous decision to liberate Iraq from Saddam Hussein's brutality, and that the president is correct to see the war in Iraq as a central front in the war on terrorism." -- Paul Bremer

"I indeed am humbled by this, and by what it represents to CBS News, and to me, personally. Please know, too, that we are resolved to emerge from this trial as an even stronger news organization, so that we may continue to be worthy of your trust and confidence." -- Dan Rather, accepting the "Overall Excellence Award" on behalf of CBS News from the Radio-Television News Directors Association

"Some politicians and Religious Right activists are eager to transform houses of worship into political machines. ... It is not the job of religious leaders to tell people which candidates to vote for or not vote for." -- Americans United for Separation of Church and State

"For every Goliath, God has a David. For every Calvary's cross, God has a Christ Jesus. To bring our country out of despair, discouragement, despondency and disgust, God has a John Kerry." -- Pastor Gaston Smith, stumping for Kerry at the pulpit

"Democrats are now on the record: 60 countries harbor al-Qa'ida. But apparently the one nation that had managed to entirely purge itself of all al-Qa'ida members was Iraq -- under the great statesman Saddam Hussein! Iraq is the only country in the world liberals believe was hermetically sealed from al-Qa'ida." -- Ann Coulter

"Give [John Kerry] a wand and slap a pair of wings on his back: [he] is running for fairy godmother! Our allies are opposed to the war? A swoosh of the Kerry wand and President Kerry will have the French and Germans rushing to our rescue in no time. Iraq needs a new army to defend itself? Zap bing -- the Kerry touch will make training an Iraqi army faster and easier. Al-Qa'ida and other terrorists are pouring over the border to join the fight? When Kerry is elected, the guerrilla insurgency will magically disappear. A summit? How brilliant! Why didn't President Bush think of that?" -- Maggie Gallagher

"The Columbus Day Parade was held [Monday] in New York. [Columbus] was the world's first Democrat. He left not knowing where he was going, arrived not knowing where he was, went home not knowing where he had been, and he did it all on government money." -- Argus Hamilton

"Do you realize there are now only three weeks left till the start of the 2008 presidential campaign? It's hard to believe." -- Jay Leno

"If CBS News is your Oracle of Delphi, then [this] probably comes as a bit of a shock. You thought that the U.S. economy had only created 96,000 new jobs in September, but we also learned in Friday's Labor Department release that the government found an additional 236,000 jobs that it had missed in previous counts. This is no surprise...during periods of economic recovery the initial estimates of job creation are almost always lower than the final real counts turn out to be. ...[I]n all five of the recessions that occurred since 1960, the initial job reports turned out to be inaccurately low. This last one makes it six. ... Friday's was the final major jobs release before the election, and the administration has to do the hard work of cutting through negative media bias in favor of presenting a full-orbed view of our current recovery." -- Jerry Bowyer

"I want to make sure we have judges who interpret the Constitution of the United States according to the law." -- John Kerry, getting it backwards

web posted October 11, 2004

"I will never submit America's national security to an international test. The use of troops to defend America must never be subject to a veto by countries like France. The President's job is not to take an international poll -- the President's job is to defend America." -- U.S. President George W. Bush

"[John Kerry and John Edwards] won't count the sacrifice and the contribution of our Iraqi allies. It's their country. They're in the fight. They're increasingly the ones out there putting their necks on the line to take back their country from the terrorists and the old regime elements that are still left. They're doing a superb job. And for you to demean their sacrifice strikes me as beyond the pale. ... You that somehow they shouldn't count. Because you want to be able to say that the Americans are taking 90 percent of the sacrifice." -- U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney

"Congress has the constitutional authority to rein in the federal courts' jurisdiction and the duty to preserve the states' republican forms of governments. Since government by the federal judiciary undermines the states' republican governments, Congress has a duty to rein in rogue federal judges." -- Ron Paul

"From 1975 to 1992 when there was no ban on assault weapons, 16 police were killed by such weapons. During a similar period, when the ban was in effect 20 police were killed by assault weapons. Draw your own conclusions." -- Lyn Nofziger

"John Kerry's whole foreign policy is cemented to the notion that allies are everything. And yet he spends precious time ridiculing America's allies as a 'coalition of the bribed' and letting his surrogates call the Iraqi prime minister a Bush puppet." -- Jonah Goldberg

"My anti-Americanism has become almost uncontrollable. It has possessed me, like a disease. It rises up in my throat like acid reflux, that fashionable American sickness. I now loathe the United States and what it has done to Iraq and the rest of the helpless world. I can hardly bear to see the faces of Bush and Rumsfeld, or to watch their posturing body language, or to hear their self-satisfied and incoherent platitudes." -- Novelist Margaret Drabble, London Daily Telegraph

"Oh I am sure that there are Hamas members on the UNRWA payroll and I don't see that as a crime. Hamas as a political organization does not mean that every member is a militant and we do not do political vetting and exclude people from one persuasion as against another." -- Peter Hansen, UN Relief and Works Agency

"Wall Street fell Thursday on news of Nigerian rebels threatening to halt the flow of oil. Crude advanced past fifty dollars per barrel. It made everybody wistful for the good old days when crude advances meant that Hillary was out of town." -- Argus Hamilton

"I was a good debater in college because I found I could make up quotes when I needed them and get away with it. It was then I realized politics was for me, the anchor chair at CBS not being available to me at the time." -- Rich Galen

"'Talking about' stuff is all Kerry's got. He's no executive experience, he's never run a state, never founded a company, built a business, made payroll. Post-Vietnam, all he's done is talk and vote. For 20 years in the U.S. Senate: talk, vote, talk, vote. So, if his talking and voting are wrong, what else is there?" -- Mark Steyn

"Did you see Edwards and Dick Cheney together? It was like Mr. Wilson yelling at Dennis the Menace: 'Get off my lawn!'" -- Jay Leno

web posted October 4, 2004

"The proper response to difficulty is not to retreat, it is to prevail." -- U.S. President George W. Bush

"Once created, federal programs are nearly impossible to eliminate." -- Rep. Ron Paul

"Bush has a four-year record as president of the United States during which time the country has been attacked by terrorists and engaged in war in two theaters. His actions 30 years ago are eclipsed by more recent and far more important events." -- Kathleen Parker

"The battle over judicial appointments today is a battle over how much power judges should have in our system of government. If judges are masters over the charter they have sworn to protect, then 'we the people' are not." -- Sen. Orrin Hatch

"In politics, throwing the taxpayers' money at disasters is supposed to show your compassion. But robbing Peter to pay Paul is not compassion. It is politics." -- Thomas Sowell

"Kerry calls Iraq a distraction. But here's a question for all Democrats: if we weren't in Iraq, what would the terrorists be doing?" -- Dennis Prager

"[Kerry] let the veterans down. When you're in a war you don't go out there badmouthing your fellow soldiers. You know, that's a disservice to the veterans. Anybody who comes back and works against the best interests of the United States, in my view, doesn't deserve to be president of the United States." -- Rep. Sam Johnson

Kerry may correctly state that Iraq has become a haven for terrorists. But we have engaged the forces of Islamo-fascism and terrorism on their turf rather than ours. Surely this has made America safer." -- Larry Kudlow

"Communism works perfectly in textbooks. Within nations, it doesn't operate so flawlessly. Since academics inhabit the theoretic world and not the practical world, it's unsurprising that they would embrace something that works in the former but not in the latter." -- Daniel Flynn

"I can begin to understand how anchor monsters are made. If you're not careful, you can become used to being treated as though you're special and begin to expect it." -- CNN's Anderson Cooper

"[S]ome Democrat strategists haven't given up hope. Says Donna Brazile, who was Al Gore's campaign manager, 'Sen. Kerry is like Seabiscuit: He runs better from behind.' It strikes [me] that it'd be closer to the truth to say Sen. Kerry is like Seabiscuit's behind." -- James Taranto

"John Kerry told Temple University Friday he will wage war in Iraq differently. It's called personal diplomacy. Due to his superior people skills and sensitivity he will be better able to get allies to send their soldiers into the wrong war at the wrong time." -- Argus Hamilton

"John Kerry would have been waiting at Plymouth Rock to warn [the Pilgrims] to go home, that the Indians would eat them if the wild beasts didn't. Fortunately for all of us, on the day the Mayflower sailed into Plymouth, he was wind-surfing off the coast at Cannes." -- Wesley Pruden

"Consistently altering one's course with the breeze might come in handy for Popeye, Captain Crunch or a well-mannered dog with terminal flatulence, however it's not a pattern of behavior leading to great respect either at home or abroad." -- Ron Marr

"My opponent says we didn't have any allies in this war. What's he say to Tony Blair? What's he say to Alexander Kwasniewski of Poland? You can't expect to build an alliance when you denigrate the contributions of those who are serving side by side with American troops in Iraq. Plus, he says the cornerstone of his plan to succeed in Iraq is to call upon nations to serve. So what's the message going to be: 'Please join us in Iraq. We're a grand diversion. Join us for a war that is the wrong war at the wrong place at the wrong time?'" -- U.S. President George W. Bush

"Senator Kerry has taken so many different positions on the issues facing the country that we thought he would benefit from the overview of the most interesting debate -- the one John Kerry is having with himself. He's been for the war, against the war and for it and against it again. Last week, he became an anti-war candidate again. This is a fatal flaw and the American people see through it. John Kerry is not able to take a principled position and is the wrong choice to guide America through this critical time." -- Rudy Giuliani

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