Year-in-Review Quiz

Test your recollection of the past year's events with this general knowledge quiz. You have one hour to complete the quiz. Please use a sharpened number 2 pencil -- to taunt Bill Frist.

1. Which of the following did Newsweek's Howard Fineman not write about George W. Bush in 2002:

a) "He�s the Texas Ranger of the World, and wants everyone to know it. He�s the guy with the silver badge, issuing warnings to the cattle rustlers."

b) "After questions were raised last week about ('What He Knew'), his numbers went UP, as the American people basically shouted, 'Leave him alone!' Why? For one, he�s done a good job so far as war commander, making the right decisions in the days and months after 9/11. ...[M]ost everyone else (including some Democrats) thinks he�s a straight-shooter and, more important, a rare and precious type to have found his way into the Oval Office: a regular guy with regular guy values and instincts."

c) "I'd put my integrity into a blind trust for Bush, but I don't really have any."

2. According to the FEC, what percentage of campaign contributions (including soft money, individual and PAC contributions) did Enron give to Republicans in the 2002 election cycle:

a) 50 percent

b) 78 percent

c) 94 percent

d) 110 percent, according to Arthur Andersen

3. In June 2002, George Bush said the following to Army Secretary Thomas White:

a) "Afghanstan. Iraq. What's the difference? They all look the same from here."

b) "As long as they're hitting you on Enron, they're not hitting me. That's your job. You're the lightning rod for this administration."

c) "Karl knows where your children live."

4. According to the United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, the most dangerous job in the United States is:

a) Truck driver

b) Firefighter

c) Meat packer

d) Altar boy, Boston Archdiocese

5. Who said in 2002: "My most enduring image of Ken Starr was formed in the men's room outside his office on the afternoon of Jan. 15, 1998."

a) Michael Isikoff

b) Robert Ray

c) Ted Olson

d) Lucianne Goldberg

6. Which corporation is responsible for the biggest domestic fraud uncovered in the past eighteen months?

a) Enron

b) Global Crossing

c) WorldCom

d) Random House, parent company of the publisher of Slander: Liberal Lies About The American Right

7. Match the Reverend Graham to the bigoted comment (Your choices are Billy and Franklin):

a) "The Arabs will not be happy until every Jew is dead. They hate the state of Israel. They all hate the Jews."

b) "This stranglehold [by the Jews] has got to be broken or the country's going down the drain."

8. Which is of the following is not an Andrew Sullivan comment regarding Bush's 2002 State of the Union Address:

a) "He understands that the danger is still enormous; that the risks still huge; the price of failure unthinkable."

b) "Also surprising and perhaps important: Iran was mentioned before Iraq. For those of you who remember, this is a re-emphasis I've been arguing for for a while. It was extremely encouraging to see it in the speech."

c) "This is the Bush who started a 'stickball' team at college and christened it 'the Nads,' so as to ensure that the chants from the stands would be 'Go Nads! Go Nads!'"

9. Conservative commentators found highly significant the religious beliefs of which criminal newsmaker(s) from the year 2002:

a) Andrea Yates

b) Fred J. Neulander

c) John Allen Muhammed

d) Irv Rubin

e) Clayton Lee Waagner

f) c. but not a., b., d. or e.

10. Which of the following Washington Times writers is not an apologist for the Confederacy, racial segregation and/or "scientific" theories of racial inferiority:

a) Robert Stacy McCain

b) Wes Pruden

c) Paul Craig Roberts

d) Andrew Sullivan

e) None of the above

11. According to an unnamed "expert" quoted on CNN, Osama bin Laden is:

a) Alive

b) Dead

c) Both a. and b.

d) Neither a. nor b.

e) Either a. or b., but not both

12. Which of these did Peggy Noonan not say in print in 2002:

a) "I have received not hundreds but thousands of the most personal and obscene denunciations; I have received death threats; I have been threatened with blackmail; I have been informed that I do not deserve to live."

b) "My friend sent the story because once, in conversation, I had told him I feared cloning was the key, that the big headline I feared is 'First Cloned Human Being Born: "We Call Him Adam!" Says Scientist.' I had told my friend I thought there would be few happy headlines after that one. Because, as the bible says and Sam Ervin quoted, God is not mocked."

c) "I don't care what any of you say, Ronald Reagan is the father of my son. Do you hear me?"

13. In a written statement issued in December, Trent Lott gave the following reason for withdrawing from his position as Republican Senate Majority Leader:

a) "In the interest of pursuing the best possible agenda for the future of our country...."

b) So he wouldn't have to celebrate Kwanzaa.

c) Karl Rove threatened to tell Lott's home state supporters that Lott's toupee included mixed-race hair.

14. In December 2002, Mickey Kaus revealed in Slate that blogger Atrios is actually:

a) Sid Blumenthal

b) Maggie Gyllenhaal

c) Thor Heyerdahl

d) Ten times the reporter and writer that Kaus is

15. George W. Bush's most formidible opponent in the year 2002 was:

a) Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle

b) Iraqi President Saddam Hussein

c) Mr. Salty