Quotabull

WOLF BLITZER: In the Gallup poll, the last one, only 24 percent of the American public thinks Congress is doing a good job.
Rep. NANCY PELOSI: Well, to tell you the truth, I don’t approve of the way Congress is ending the war in Iraq myself. And that’s because of the 60-vote barrier in the United States Senate. But don’t mistake, expert that you are — your audience should not mistake the rating for Congress as the rating for the Democrats. We’re as high as we’ve ever been. We’re up 53 percent to 30 something for the Republicans in terms of favorability of a political party in the Congress.

— Sept. 25 exchange between CNN’s Wolf Blitzer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi regarding the approval rating of Democrats vs. Republicans in Congress, about which an Aug. 21 Gallup poll notes: “The nine-point drop in Congress’ job approval rating from [July] to [August] has come exclusively from Democrats and independents, with Democrats’ ratings dropping 11 points (from 32% to 21%) and independents’ ratings dropping 13 points (from 30% to 17%). Republicans’ 18% approval rating is unchanged from [July].” [emphasis added]

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CNN’s Kurtz needs refresher course in basic journalism

At the end of his CNN “Reliable Sources” program Sunday, media critic Howard Kurtz took an unfair swipe at the University of Florida’s journalism program. He should have done his reporting first, and he should have thought first and spoke second.

He first voiced an opinion about the use of a Taser on a student questioning Sen. John Kerry, complete with his labeling of Florida student Andrew Meyer’s remarks:

KURTZ: Clearly the Florida police overreacted and the Tasering went too far, but one other point, Andrew Meyer is a journalism student. He wasn’t questioning Kerry. He was delivering a liberal diatribe.

And then, after showing the video clip, this:

KURTZ: No way Andrew Meyer deserves to get Tasered, but what are they teaching him in journalism school? [emphasis added]

That’s a cheap shot. Point one: He got his facts wrong. According to the Independent Florida Alligator, Meyer is not a journalism student. He’s a telecommunications major.

Sen. Clinton and her Mighty Job Creation Machine … sort of

Advice for Sen. Hillary Clinton: Don’t make promises you can’t (won’t? forgot to?) keep.

Sen. Clinton, who now doubles as a presidential candidate, showed up four years ago in Buffalo, N.Y., in my back yard bringing with her a company that promised it might create up to 100 news jobs.

New York state has “lost 26,344 manufacturing jobs and 810 manufacturers since August of last year.” Western New York has been hit particularly hard, losing 3,000 manufacturing jobs — the good-paying kind — in the past year.

So anyone who promises to create jobs in and around Buffalo is literally promising to throw life preservers to men and women drowning in a job-loss nightmare.

So as a candidate for re-election to the Senate and in midst-dance about whether she’d run for president, Sen. Clinton brought to town Tata Consultancy Services and its promises of job creation.

A reporter for the Buffalo News called the local office of Tata recently and just asked, so, how my workers you got? “Ten.” Yep. Just 10. (Here’s a tip to politicians. Don’t give precise numbers. They can be checked.) And the PR hit gets worse …

Obama tsks-tsks Wall Street about guile and greed

Presidential candidate and senator Barack Obama said something earlier this week worth noting — and the audience he said it to as well.

Sen. Obama stood before a sea of Wall Street executives at Nasdaq headquarters and told them to behave:

Our free market was never meant to be a free license to take whatever you can get, however you can get it. And so from time to time, we have put in place certain rules of the road to make competition fair and open and honest.

According to The New York Times, he “described this summer’s subprime lending crisis as a case study of greed among mortgage lenders and the agencies that provide information about them.” He argued for protections of the middle class and additional oversight of those agencies that rate credit.

If more Americans were armed with this kind of information before they purchased risky mortgage loans, the current crisis might not have happened.

Life’s tough: A billion dollars gets no respect

If I had a net worth of one billion dollars today, I’d be depressed. What’s the use of having all that moolah if I can’t lord it over mere mortals by adding fame to that forturne?

But I only have one billion dollars. And folks, that’s no longer enough to get me on the Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans.

This year it took $1.3 billion, up $300 million from last year. For cryin’ out loud, Yankees owner George Steinbrenner III — one of 21 tied for 380th, last on the list — beat me out. What’s a money-grubbin’ capitalist like me gots to do to make that damn list?

Quotabull

New Coke was announced on April 23, 1985, with the company’s president piling on adjectives usually reserved for Lafite Rothschild — “smoother, rounder yet bolder.” Almost 80 days later, the public having sampled it, the company pulled the product from stores. Perhaps Thompson’s candidacy will last longer than New Coke did.

— syndicated columnist George Will on former senator Fred Thompson’s entry into the presidential campaign sweepstakes.

I don’t think Margaret Thatcher would impugn the integrity of a commanding general in a time of war, as Hillary Clinton did, or require an army to give a schedule of their retreat to the enemy, as the Democrats are suggesting.

— presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, who this week will “give the inaugural Margaret Thatcher lecture, organised by the Atlantic Bridge think tank. He will be awarded the Margaret Thatcher medal of freedom by the original Iron Lady, 81, who is revered by American conservatives.” (See photos of candidate Giuliani and Mrs. Thatcher.)

Hillary, John, Rudy, et al., we hardly knew ye …

If I’d had $1,000 to spare, the freedom to blow off a day of work and the cost of plane fare from Buffalo, N.Y., to Washington, D.C., I could have met presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, probably gotten photographed with her and listened to her speak on her perceptions of “domestic security.”

She and other members of Congress hosted a noon luncheon for donors at the law firm of Jones Day. After that, I could have participated in an hour of “policy discussions.” But I didn’t get an invitation. I’ll bet you didn’t, either.

CREW: keeping track of corrupt politicians without fear or favor

It’s one thing to call politicians corrupt. It’s another, and more credible, thing to name the worst and back up the charges. But that’s what Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has done.

If you find corruption in government abhorrent and appalling — let alone a sinful waste of your tax dollars — then you’ll find the 22 citations of corruption in “Beyond DeLay” a frightful but compelling read.

Conservatives may regret foolish FEC complaint

The American Conservative Union said Friday it has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission, claiming the discount given by The New York Times for Moveon.org’s “General Betray Us” ad constitutes “a corporate soft money contribution to a federal political committee.”

It’s a foolish move, concocted in haste, and could fall prey to the Law of Unintended Consequences.

Ignore politicians who don’t play nice with the other children

First, MoveOn.org, a liberal political action group, uses a full-page New York Times ad to attack the character of an American commander, calling him “Gen. Betray Us” and accusing him of “cooking the books for the White House” on the war in Iraq.

Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton assails the general’s report to Congress, saying it requires “a willing suspension of disbelief,” essentially calling him a liar. Presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani runs a full-page ad in The Times highlighting candidate Clinton’s quote and reproducing the MoveOn.org ad. Candidate Giuliani’s ad claims Democrats orchestrated the attack on Gen. David Petraeus. His ad closes this way:

These times call for statesmanship, not politicians spewing political venom.

All of which makes me wonder: Did the current crop of presidential candidates — and modern politicians in general — fail kindergarten?