Old Fogey's Quotes for Tuesday

Here are my first posts. I'll follow later with a few more.

"It would be like slamming a door on progress. I will do everything that's legal to help us attract minority students. But it's already having a chilling effect."
Mary Sue Coleman, president of the University of Michigan, referring to ballot initiative, Proposition 2, which would amend Michigan's Constitution to bar public institutions from considering race or sex in public education, employment or contracting
Campaign to End Race Preferences Splits Michigan
[As long as every blind study shows discrimination against African Americans, I'm one white southerner who will fight to preserve affirmative action. I get tired of whites whining about reverse discrimination, ignoring the fact that whites profited from affirmative action for centuries. We have only made a half-hearted effort to rectify that for 50 years at the most.]

"However they put it, the Democrat approach in Iraq comes down to this: The terrorists win and America loses."
King George the Buck Passer
Bush Says 'America Loses' Under Democrats
[It appears to silly me that at the present time the terrorists are winning and America is losing in spite of strategies composed of three word slogans that sound very tough but are full of sound and fury, signifying nothing except our declining status in the world. How could the Democrats do worse?]

"The party acts as though when they want our opinion they'll give it to us. It will not be like that anymore."
Wayne K. Curry , Prince George, MD's first black county executive, referring to the Democrats
Black Democrats Endorse Steele
[Although I think it is a mistake to endorse Steele when the stakes are so high nationally, I agree that Dems can't continue to seek to rally the black vote, and then take that constituency for granted. Surely the GOP has proved the effectiveness of mobilizing one's base. Most African Americans are likely to remain Democrats on policy issues but will not turn out to vote for a party that disrespects them.]

"Political money is like water. It will find an outlet. If 527s are banned, will another vehicle pop up? Absolutely."
Jeffrey M. Berry, a political science professor at Tufts University
Unregulated groups put millions in election
[If we can't dry up the flow of political money, we can control it to some extent and certainly find ways to require absolute transparency so the voters know who owes what to whom.]

"There, in just two words, you have the Bush administration's approach to the war in Iraq. Indeed, you have the Republicans' theory of government:

Back off. "

Eugene Robinson in the WaPo
Don't Worry. Just Back Off.
[Yes, if it wasn't for us uppity leftist liberals, there would be no problems. We just can't seem to understand the complexity of the issues, so I guess we should just stop trying. I guess I need to change my bumper sticker from "Overcoming Poverty is a Religious Issue' to one that says, "Don't Worry, be Happy"]

Scholars always bang on about the debate between "realism" and "idealism" in U.S. foreign policy, but the truth is that for most of the past century we've been simultaneously realistic and idealistic -- in favor of democratic change and deeply wedded to status quo stability -- much to the confusion of everyone else.
Anne Applebaum in WaPo
Supporting Democracy -- Or Not
[As a history professor, I urged my students to try to see the US from the perspective of other nations. All nations are going to act most of the time in their own self-interest. We are no different, but Americans tend to not believe it. As far as democracy, we have actually undermined it at times in order to keep pro-American, capitalist regimes in power. Of course, many people around the world resent our power (actually Bush has helped with that by making us look impotent), but what really galls them is the amazing extent ofhypocrisycricy.]