best notable quotables of 1999, The

The Media Research Center (MRC) has again published its annual compilation of the most outrageous and/or humorous news media quotes of the year.

To determine 1999's winners, a panel of 44 talk-show hosts, magazine editors, columnists, editorial writers and media observers gave of their time to select their choices for the first-, second- and thirdbest quotes in each category. What follows are the winning quotes in each category, followed by the first runners-up.

For more information or to order MRC's complete compilation of awardwinning quotes, call 703-683-9733 or visit the MRC website at www.mediaresearch.org.

The Alec Baldwin Award

For Hate Speech Against the Presidential lmpeachers

I think there are real questions about separation of powers and I don't think he [Clinton] should go up there [appear before the Senate]. And second of all, that herd of managers from the House, I mean frankly all they were missing was white sheets. They're like night riders going over. This is bigger than Bill Clinton."

--Newsweek's Eleanor Clift

January 9

"McLaughlin Group"

Runner-Up

"As she watches Republicans in Congress push ahead with impeachment proceedings against President Clinton, Ellen Mendel of Manhattan says she feels the same despair that she did as a girl in Nazi Germany when the efforts of a stubborn group of leaders snowballed, crushing the will of the people. 'It is apparent that the bulldozing campaign by the Republicans will not end,' said Ms. Mendel, a psychotherapist. And in a moment of self-analysis, she added: 'Their efforts are so abusive that I was beginning to feel a sense of discouragement I have been feeling very isolated.'"

--Opening to a January 25 New York Times story by Ginger Thompson on liberal Manhattanites enraged by the Republican push for removal

Soft on Crime Award

For Promoting Those Opposed to Holding Clinton Accountable

"You know who the hero of this whole thing is, it's that guy, what was his name, Richard Llamas, the guy who stood up in the Senate gallery last week and said, 'Good God vote and get over with this, will you.' If they had stretched this out for another two or three weeks, which if they would have had the kind of witnesses Bob [Novak] wanted to have, I want to tell you something, I think the people may have stormed the United States Capitol."

-Wall Street Journal

Executive Washington Editor Al Hunt on a special edition of CNN's "Capital Gang"

February 11

Runner-Up

"The Republican managers pushed a ase that was bogus from the beginning. It should have been a vote of censure in the House and be done with it. And look at the defectors, the Republican defectors in the Senate: Northeastern Republicans. That's the aspect of the party that's still in touch with the people."

-Newsweek's Eleanor Clift

February 13 "McLaughlin Group"

China Syndrome Award

For Dismissing Nuclear Espionage

"Where have you gone, Joe McCarthy, oh, a nation turns its lonely eyes to you.... Yes folks, Republican efforts to warn Americans of the danger of fuzzy liberals in charge of the nation's political system-and its nuclear secrets-are about to go into overdrive."

-May 24 Tune Daily online story by Tony Karon

Runner-Up

"I heard someone ask rhetorically today that, 'Look, this is only gonna matter if, God forbid, there is one dark day that sees the use, the all-out use of thermonuclear weapons on this planet, and so why worry?'"

-MSNBC host Brian Williams to House Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Porter Goss (R.-Fla.) on "The News With Brian Williams, " May 25

I Am Woman Award

For Hillary Rodham Worshipping

"She emerged on health care, only to beat a very bruised retreat. She clearly hated being thought of as just Bill Clinton's wife. But ironically, it would take his scandals, finally, to free her. Finally, last November 1998, Hillary Clinton showed the world what she could do on the campaign trail without him. Political mastery, every bit as dazzling as his, the thoughtful speech, unapologetically strong, emboldening Democrats, electing senators. So her friends say she has really earned this campaign, this moment, if she chooses, earned it by changing herself, searching, stumbling, and at the end, by standing, not by her man, but by herself."

-Cohost Diane Sawyer on "Good Morning America, " March 12

Runner-Up

"Forget the Senate. Over the last 12 days, Hillary Rodham Clinton has looked and sounded more like a candidate for Secretary of State. There she was in Egypt, gently urging tolerance for the minority Coptic Christians. There she was in Tunisia, lashing out at Islamic radicals in other countries who oppress women. And here she was in Morocco, speaking out on everything from the Middle East peace process to the NATO airstrikes in Yugoslavia.... But the sight of the First Lady back on the world stage where she feels so sure-footed brought into sharp focus the peculiar trade-offs facing her as she decides whether to run next year... How does a woman who eagerly told an audience this morning about education and economics in Guatemala and Uganda turn her attention to the pork-and-potholes issues that arise in places like Utica and Ithaca? How does a woman whose international profile is so high that bystanders in Africa two years ago referred to her as 'the queen of the world' adjust to becoming a low-ranking member of the seniority-conscious Senate?"