Harry Reid on the Senate Floor -- 10/26/2000

[Nevernose]

This is fairly long, and rather embarrasing for GW. A brief search of Thomas reveals simialr criticism of the presidency for the last four years. Food for thought, and contains a great list of Bush quotes.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?r106:16:./temp/~r106StgqoA::

"Yesterday, I came to this floor, approximately 24 hours ago. I talked about this campaign being a campaign, we would hope, of ideas, of policy views, of a vision for what the country should be. Not the ability to operate a 7-Eleven store but to operate the greatest country in the history of the world, the only superpower left in the world.

Having said that, I am going to again give some direct quotes and these are all brand new. I did not talk about them last night. I am, tonight, going to again read verbatim quotes that have been made by a person, Governor Bush , who wants to be President of the United States. Here is what he said.

Interview with the New York Times, March 15, 2000:

People make suggestions on what to say all the time. I'll give you an example; I don't read what's handed to me. People say, ``Here, here's your speech, or here's an idea for a speech.'' They're changed. Trust me.

Interview with the Associated Press, March 8, 2000:

It's evolutionary, going from governor to president, and this is a significant step, to be able to vote for yourself on the ballot, and I'll be able to do so next fall, I hope.

Next direct quote:

It is not Reaganesque to support a tax plan that is Clinton in nature.

February 23, 2000, USA Today:

I don't have to accept their tenants. I was trying to convince those college students to accept my tenants. And I reject any labeling me because I happened to go to the university.

New York Daily News, February 19, this year:

I understand small business growth. I was one.

Florence, SC, February 17, 2000:

The Senator has got to understand if he's going to have--he can't have it both ways. He can't take the high horse and then claim the low road.

To Cokie Roberts, February 20, 2000:

Really proud of it. A great campaign. And I'm really pleased with the organization and the thousands of South Carolinians that worked on my behalf. I'm very gracious and humbled.

He said:

I am very gracious and humbled.

Newsweek, February 28, 2000:

I don't want to win? If that were the case why the heck am I on the bus 16 hours a day, shaking thousands of hands, giving hundreds of speeches, getting pillared in the press and cartoons and still staying on message to win?

Same interview:

I thought how proud I am to be standing up beside my dad. Never did it occur to me that he would become the gist for cartoonists.

Hilton Head, SC:

If you are sick and tired of the politics of cynicism and polls and principles, come and join this campaign.

That was on February 16, 2000. Again, that same day, those in Beaufort, SC:

How do you know if you don't measure if you have a system that simply suckles kids through?

Here, in Beaufort he was explaining the need for educational accountability.

In a South Carolina debate, February 15:

We ought to make the pie higher.

``Meet The Press,'' February 13:

I do not agree with this notion that somehow if I go to try to attract votes and to lead people toward a better tomorrow somehow I get subscribed to some--some doctrine gets subscribed to me.

``Meet The Press,'' February 13, 2000:

I've changed my style somewhat, as you know. I'm less--I pontificate less, although it may be hard to tell it from this show. And I'm more interacting with people.

Nashua, NH, February 1, New York Times:

I think we need not only to eliminate the tollbooth to the middle class, I think we should knock down the tollbooth.

San Antonio Express-News, January 30:

The most important job is not to be governor, or first lady in my case.

January 29, 2000:

Will the highways on the Internet become more few?

Concord, NH:

Los Angeles Times, January 28:

This is Preservation Month. I appreciate preservation. It's what you do when you run for president. You gotta preserve.

Chamber of Commerce in Nashua, NH, January 27:

I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family.

Quoted by Molly Ivins, this is from the San Francisco Chronical, January 21:

What I am against is quotas. I am against hard quotas, quotas they basically delineate based upon whatever. However they delineate, quotas, I think vulcanize society. So I don't know how that fits into what everybody else is saying their relatives positions, but that's my position.

Iowa Western Community College, January 21:

This is a quote: ``When I was coming up it was a dangerous world, and you knew exactly who they were. ..... It was us vs. them, and it was clear who them was. Today, we are not so sure who the they are, but we know they're there.''

This is from the Des Moines Register, January 15:

The administration I'll bring is a group of men and women who are focused on what's best for America, honest men and women, decent men and women, women who will see service to our country as a great privilege and who will not stain the house.

Financial Times, January 14:

This is a dangerous world. It's a world of madmen and uncertainty and potential mental losses.

Same interview:

We must all hear the universal call to like your neighbor just like you like to be liked yourself.

Florence, SC, January 11:

Rarely is the question asked: Is your children learning?

Same interview:

Gov. Bush will not stand for the subsidation of failure.

``Larry King Live,'' December 16 of last year:

GPO's PDF

There needs to be debates, like we're going through. There needs to be town-hall meetings. There needs to be travel. This is a huge country.

New Hampshire, Republican debate:

I read the newspaper.

In answer to a question about his reading habits.

``Meet The Press,'' November 21, of last year:

I think it's important for those of us in a position of responsibility to be firm in sharing our experiences, to understand that the babies out of wedlock is a very difficult chore for mom and baby alike. ..... I believe we ought to say there is a different alternative than the culture that is proposed by people such as Miss Wolf in society. ..... And, you know, hopefully condoms will work, but it hasn't worked.

From ``A Charge to Keep,'' by George W. Bush , published last year in November:

The students at Yale came from all different backgrounds and all parts of the country. Within months, I knew many of them.

New York Times:

The important question is, How many hands have I shaked?

The Washington Post, July 27:

I don't remember debates. I don't think we spent a lot of time debating it. Maybe we did, but I don't remember.

This is on a discussion of the Vietnam war when he was at Yale.

Knight Ridder News Service:

The only thing I know about Slovakia is what I learned first-hand from your foreign minister, who came to Texas.

The fact is, the meeting was not with the Minister of Slovakia but with the Prime Minister of Slovenia, two different countries.

June 16, New York Times:

If the East Timorians decide to revolt, I'm sure I'll have a statement.

Economist, June 12:

Keep good relations with the Grecians.

CNN Inside Politics, April 9:

Kosovians can move back in.

I was just inebriating what Midland was all about then.

This is from an interview, as quoted in ``First Son'' by a man named Bill Minutaglio.

Arlington Heights, IL, October 24, a day or so ago, to make sure we are current:

It's important for us to explain to our Nation that life is important. It is not only life of babies, but it is life of children living, you know, the dark dungeons of the Internet.

The debate to become President of the United States is a very serious debate. It involves things we talked about tonight. Tax policy, established by an independent group--the tax policy of want-to-be-President George W. Bush would bankrupt the country. His Social Security policy would bankrupt Social Security. His education program in Texas has been a failure. His efforts to talk about bipartisanship is without any foundation.

He, in the debates, talked about bipartisanship. The fact is, on major issues in play in this election, bipartisan projects have been blocked by the highly partisan Republican majority. Overcoming that kind of determined partisan opposition means working with people such as Dr. Charlie Norwood on the Patients' Bill of Rights. ""