Saturday, March 30, 2013

A weasel is a weasel is a weasel

There seems to be a rash of never-minds from politicians who, as Mitt Romney once described his own linguistic detours, didn't express something as "elegantly" as it might have been stated.  Now we have word from Rep. Don Young, the long-serving  Alaska Republican, that he was sorry he referred to workers on his father's California ranch as "wetbacks".  Even speaker John Boehner recoiled from that remark.

All of which leads me to the Spring issue of Lapham's Quarterly (from Lewis Lapham, the civilized former editor of Harper's Magazine).  There you will find the following insight attributed to The Simpsons:

"Weaseling out of things is important to learn.  It's what separates us from the animals - except the weasel."   

1 comment:

David Hess said...

Congressman Young's latest verbal gaffe is simply one amid hundreds he has voiced in the decades he has spent in the House. That he hasn't been ousted from his seat by Alaskans is testimony to their sense of humor and their gleeful anticipation of his next antic misstep. Plus, of course, his relentless and shameless pursuit of federal dollars (in the billions) to spread around his vast state.