Back in George W. Bush’s second term, when diplomatic realism began to overtake foolish bellicosity, the president developed one of his patented nicknames for the two most powerful neoconservative journalists, William Kristol and Charles Krauthammer: he called them ‘the Bomber Boys.’ Joe Klein Read Quote
When I started in the press there were really ink-stained wretches. Not everybody went to college. Now, everybody at the New York Times and the Washington Post and Salon and Slate, most of them have Ivy League educations. Joe Klein Read Quote
I believe that poverty is often the result of inappropriate behavior – out-of-wedlock births, dropping out of school, crime and drugs – which should not be rewarded. But often it isn’t, and common decency requires that we take care of the least of these. Joe Klein Read Quote
I invented the psychological histories and the relationship between Jack and Susan Stanton. I didn’t know anything about the Clintons. I don’t know more about the Clintons’ marriage than you do. Joe Klein Read Quote
I got into journalism because I came of age in the ’60s. It just seemed one way for me to get things done. Joe Klein Read Quote
If there was one fact that sent me hurtling off to write ‘Politics Lost,’ it was when I learned that John Kerry had focus-grouped Abu Ghraib. We knew about the Justice Department memo in June of 2004, and Kerry didn’t raise that in any one of his three debates with George Bush. Joe Klein Read Quote
You know that Moses was spinning like crazy in Exodus XIV through XVII when the Jewish people wanted to go back and become a place again because tramping through the desert was a bit too hard. Joe Klein Read Quote
If every American automatically has health coverage, the age at which Medicare kicks in becomes a less fraught issue. We could gradually raise the age of Medicare eligibility a bit, according to income, and save money. Joe Klein Read Quote
Bush promised a foreign policy of humility and a domestic policy of compassion. He has given us a foreign policy of arrogance and a domestic policy that is cynical, myopic and cruel. Joe Klein Read Quote
