A few days ago, the president made a joke at his own expense by referring to his, the “Republic Party.” He was a guest at a gathering of congressional Democrats. Days earlier, the president made reference to the “Democrat Party.” He was being inarticulate. That in large part is what got him elected to the big job, twice. Americans insist on well-educated presidents. They like the ones who openly display their intelligence but just for a while. Then they want one who despite schooling resembles how they see themselves.
A host of the top members of the Democratic Party then proceeded to spit nails. When you’re inches behind microphones, as each critic of the president’s articulateness was, spitting nails can damage a lot of expensive electronic equipment. Don’t worry, Fox and CNN carry lots of spares, as well as cable for politicians to hang themselves with.
A few months ago, word man William Safire used a term in his New York Times Magazine column that means turning one kind of word into another, like nouns into verbs, such as “impact.” Don’t recall his word; I wish I was more articulate. Linguists and rhetoricians have technical jargon, just like other engineers.
We seem to have a cat-and-mouse game, but it is played only on a small section of the greensward. It’s called Misdemeanor, or Minor Offense. The mice are the slights themselves, and the cats are broadcasters with all those microphones. One senator calls another senator a word for well-spoken, which can seem patronizing. A misdemeanor.
The president forgets the “ic” in Democratic, and the new majority members of Congress — who should be working on Iraq, the economy and the line between liberty and security — claim offense, albeit a minor offense. Yet the business of government is taking place on the rest of the field. And all these people actually spend most of their time running things.
What we news consumer get stuck with is the “ic” of things. All these groups are responsible. Some Democratic Party members thought Democrat was worth a whine. It wasn’t. The president apologized for common speech. But the vernacular is his gimmick. The media got conflict, which is the easiest thing to record and broadcast. We the people got more of the same, and that still is good enough for us because the bottom hasn’t fallen out.
Ic. -30-
