Marvin Kalb Quotations

Since it has happened once before, I wish that it will happen again.

McClellan yesterday knew that the man who was shot had suffered a heart attack. He should have reported that, he should have told that to the reporters, and they to the American people. That was an extremely important moment in this whole story. Up to that point, you can say well, it wasn't all that important, although I don't agree with that, but after that moment, it was indisputably an important thing.

I don't find Senator Frist to be a social fundamentalist. . . .

He's a very accomplished newsman and a very nice man. He found himself in a dreadful, dreadful situation.

He's a very accomplished newsman and a very nice man, ... He found himself in a dreadful, dreadful situation.

I think it would be easier for them to say. . . .

Is it the leadership of the House? Is it Hastert? Is it DeLay?

This is something that is simply natural for the cable operators to do.

This is one of the greatest challenges facing this particular president. This is the beginning of a major effort by the White House. Everybody has to chip in. This is a major offensive in which the media plays a big role.

But if they're as powerful as you say they are, shouldn't you name them?

I could name names, and then you could tell me if I'm wrong, ... Are you talking about someone like Senator Frist?

Putin is a despot, and he's a very good despot. And he will see things in a narrow way. What is good for Russia? That is what he will do. If that's represented by a move toward the Baltic, that would be very dangerous, but he would do it, on the assumption that he would ask himself the question: I am prepared to fight for Estonia. Is the United States? Is Germany? Is Britain, France?

We had in the West a very romantic vision of Russia back in 1991, when the Soviet Union died and whatever is Russia began to emerge. And we began to think of it as a democracy. We're going to bring it into the West. All is going to be wonderful. That was never in the cards.

Vladimir Putin is a Russian czar. He's kind of a mix of Peter the Great and Stalin. He's got both in his veins. And he looks out first and foremost for the national security interests of Russia. He accepts that, in Eastern Europe, that is a Russian backyard, that is a Russian sphere of influence. Ukraine lives most uncomfortably and unhappily in a Russian backyard.

If anything good is going to emerge out of this, it's going to be the result of an acceptable modus vivendi between Ukraine and Russia. The two of them will have to get together at some point. It is going to be a result that many people in the West will not like, because Russia, as the bigger power, is going to get the better of the deal. So, a lot of people will say, that's appeasement. That's this - that - it's reality.

Every nation at the end of the day must fend for itself. Sometimes, it needs help. And Ukraine deserves all the help in the world.

But there are realities governing what they can do. And Ukraine cannot live with the false image that somehow or another the West will come and rescue her. It's not going to happen.

Russia can never be an empire unless it is in control of Ukraine.

Well, we have got to understand, for example, Russia is an orthodox Christian nation. So is Ukraine. That happened in 988 in Crimea, a place called Kievan Rus, which was the Russia around Kiev at that time. It's 1,000 years ago, but, to a Russian, it's yesterday.

we are dealing with a return to what might be a far more normal relationship between the West and Russia. Russia is what it is that we see. It's not dressed up in its birthday costume. It is what it is. It regards its national interests as important enough to fight for. And the difference on the whole Ukraine situation is that the Russians are prepared to fight for their position on Ukraine, and the West is not.

At what price do we get our news? The role of economics in defining the nature of contemporary journalism has never been better explained. A valuable, important book for those of us who watch, read, or listen to the news.

When President Obama in 2011 used military power against the Qaddafi regime in Libya, he did not even notify Congress. A few in Congress mumbled, but did nothing.

Putin never wanted all of Ukraine. He wanted for historical purposes to take Crimea. He did. Then he wanted a part of Ukraine that he could always use to advance Russian interests. And he is now at a point where nobody in the West is shouting, hey, stop. Give us back Crimea. It's all accepted. And so he has won.

U.S. Constitution declares rather unambiguously that Congress has the responsibility to “declare war.

Matt Drudge's role in the Monica Lewinski scandal] strikes me as a new and graphic power of the Internet to influence mainstream journalism. And I suspect that over the next couple of years that impact will grow to the point where it will damage journalism's ability to do its job professionally, to check out information before publication, to be mindful of the necessity to publish and broadcast reliable, substantiated information.

I love a novel that’s funny, and The Taxman Cometh is very funny, delightfully well-written, yet with a serious message about how government bureaucracy affects us all. Read. Enjoy. And if a comparison to Catch 22 pops into your mind, that’s not surprising.