Posted on 09/09/2001 10:42:07 AM PDT by Jean S
On George W. Bush: "He's doing reasonably well. He's benefiting from not being Clinton. He's been successful legislatively, getting three-quarters of what he wants.
"He's smart enough. I've met every president since Nixon, and I can tell you who the three smartest were: Nixon, Carter and Clinton. (But) Nixon and Clinton had inner demons that allowed them to make horrible mistakes.
"Bush has real retail political talents. What I don't think he has done in the same way is demonstrated the wholesale, projecting like a statesman."
On Bill Clinton: "A tremendous political talent who squandered much of it through his profound character flaws. And the electorate slowly figured that out and visited their second thoughts about him on Al Gore."
On Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson: "I don't have a strong point of view about how he is going to do. It may be a little too early to tell.
"But he has to go down as one of the most significant governors of the last 50 years - welfare reform, his education initiatives, school choice.
"I think if he were a little slicker, a little smoother, he could have been a national politician. I don't see him on the (presidential) ticket."
On Sen. Hillary Clinton: "She's formidable. She's smart. But fundamentally I don't think that she is at all warm as a human being - or projects that - and that's a limit on her as a politician.
"She called me up: 'Reading your column reminded me that I haven't called to congratulate you on your new job, which I thinks makes you one of my constituents.'
"She says she's not going to run (for president) in 2004, so let's take her at her word. But does she want to run some day? You betcha."
On Sen. Herb Kohl: "To me, just a complete blank slate. I've never met him. I don't see footprints he's left. He's just made no impression on me in terms of my covering politics. I have never once run into him anywhere."
On Sen. Russ Feingold: "I did a tough piece on him when he first ran and that's mainly because I like Bob Kasten," the GOP incumbent Feingold beat in 1992.
"I actually like Russ personally. He's a decent guy. I like his quirkiness. His independence, his vote for (Attorney General John) Ashcroft. He's smart, and just independent enough, populist enough, to be interesting."
On a key Feingold cause, campaign finance reform: "It's idiotic."
On Clinton White House counsel Vince Foster, who criticized Wall Street Journal editors before his suicide and wrote, "Here ruining people is considered sport":
"When something like that happens, you do some soul-searching. We did. He was depressed. If you reread our editorial on him, it was mild.
"I think that is a charge used by our enemies to kind of smear us."
On Mark Shields, his opposite on the NewsHour's "Shields & Gigot": "Mark is, you know, a Massachusetts liberal, a Kennedy liberal, an Irish guy who went to Notre Dame."
On Paul Gigot: "I'm much more Midwestern temperamentally. I'm kind of laconic, Belgian French, not a glib Irishman like Mark. I'm much quieter."
- Katherine M. Skiba
And it really shows.
Actually, I think Gigot is from Wisconsin. I think that's the reason this article appears in a Milwaukee paper.
BTW, my wife has a crush on Paul Gigot. He is my competition. :-)
I agree. Too small and far too backloaded.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.