Words Will Never Hurt Me – The Art of the Political Insult

by Chris Berg

In a city as mercurial as Washington DC words are often ascribed additional weight and meaning.  It is the rare politician that can cut a man down to size with a word or a turn of phrase.  Recently we’ve seen two men who have perfected this, Bill Clinton and Dick Cheney.

474px-Dick_Cheney

Clinton described Barack Obama and his presidential bid as “the biggest fairy tale I’ve ever seen.”  With one phrase, Clinton managed to diminish Obama and his accomplishments.  Rather than conjure to mind images of Kennedy and Camelot, Clinton’s phrase brought forth vivid images of Alice in Wonderland.  Bill Clinton is a calculating man and he understood the weight of his words.  He even had to defend them as the mainstream media finally caught wind of the insult.

Dick Cheney managed to similarly impact Obama’s image with one word, dithering.  The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines dither as:”to act nervously or indecisively.”  When used by Cheney to describe Barack Obama’s stance on Afghanistan it carried more weight.  With the use of one word Cheney managed to portray Obama as weak, indecisive, and unfit to lead.  Dithering certainly doesn’t conjure to mind images of Barack Obama as a mythical figure who can do no wrong.

It’s a rare skill to be able to so dramatically impact one’s image with the use of merely a word or a pithy phrase.

Here in DC this happens more often than you’d think.  However, it’s the truly special cases where one’s name becomes a verb.  This only happens when you’ve reached a certain level of infamy.  Robert Bork, Tom Daschle, and now Dede Scozzafava can count themselves among this elite group.

Robert Bork served as a Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.  This Court is often regarded as the second most powerful in the land.  President Ronald Reagan nominated Bork for the Supreme Court in 1987.  This set off a firestorm of criticism from the Left.  They vilified and attacked Bork and managed to defeat his confirmation.  The verb “to Bork” has come to mean to viciously attack a nominee to prevent their appointment to public office.  An example, liberals tried to Bork the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court.

Tom Daschle served the people of South Dakota as their Senator from 1987 until 2005.  He also served as Senate Majority Leader.  Daschle, still a power player in the DC luncheon circuit, was focused more on his position as Majority Leader than his commitment to the people of South Dakota.  John Thune, a bright, charismatic former Congressman took him on and defeated him.  Now we use the verb “to Daschle” to describe rooting a national leader, who has neglected his commitment to his voters, from office.  To use it in a sentence: “Soon Harry Reid will be Daschled out of office.”

The Washington Post has declared Scozzafava to be the newest verb.  Scozzafava was the Republican candidate for the race in New York’s 23rd Congressional District.  On the eve of the election she bowed to the popular will and dropped out of the race, recognizing the Conservative groundswell for Doug Hoffman.  Scozzafava then endorsed the Democrat running for the seat.  Her name will now be associated with the will of the people choosing a candidate with conservative principles over a more moderate candidate.  For example, will the moderate Senate candidate be Scozzafaved?

For the moment Dede Scozzafava will join the ranks of Robert Bork and Tom Daschle.  We’ll see whether her name will live on after her fifteen minutes have faded.


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Posted Nov 11th 2009 at 9:23 am in Culture, Politics | 51 Comments