The end of borking?
I doubt it, but Daniel Henniger argues the techniques of borking have decayed. Or is it that the Dems are old and sclerotic? The attempted smear of Judge Alito has certainly failed.
Judge Bork notes that becoming a verb is a kind of immortality. “To bork” (working definition): to slander and destroy via the concerted, concentrated, and well-financed efforts of the governmentalist, academic, and media wings of the Democratic party.
After Joe Biden poached a personal history and part of a speech from British Labor politician Neil Kinnock (1987, I think– follow the link), I thought “to bidenize” might emerge as a term meaning “plaigirize” or “enhance the biography while campaigning in the Midwest.” Of course it didn’t– because he’s a Democrat. Until the late 1990s, the “culture makers” covered for Democrats.
Times change. Two new verbs may emerge from the Alito hearings. Consider “To teddy.” A working definition might be “to decay like Dorian Gray, except do so during live, televised Senate hearings.”
Biden may yet become a verb. “To biden”: to shoot onself in one’s own foot using one’s own mouth.
Here’s Henniger’s lede:
The grand hulk of Ted Kennedy ranted that he wanted to subpoena the papers of former National Review publisher William Rusher to get to the bottom of Samuel Alito’s membership in the Concerned Alumni of Princeton. At this moment, one sensed that perhaps at last the ghost of Robert Bork had finally been laid to rest. Borking was once a Democratic smear tactic. This week–amid intellectually exhausted and politically befuddled Democrats–it became a laugh track.
As to Sen. Biden, although not a verb, I like “biden time” as in “Looks like it’s biden time for (fill in applicable “
Comment by gizmo — 1/13/2006 @ 10:40 am
As to Sen. Biden, I like “biden time,” as in “Looks like it’s ‘biden time’ for (fill in blabberer).”
Comment by gizmo — 1/13/2006 @ 10:45 am
Rather than “To Teddy”, may I suggest “To Teddify”? I think it better captures the sens of intellectiual calcification, moral decay and physchological schleriosis that you are trying to convey.
Comment by Joe L. — 1/13/2006 @ 11:00 am
Can I suggest “teddify” instead of “to teddy”. It better conveys the sense of intellectual calcification, moral decay and pyscho-physical sclerosis that is Ted Kennedy.
Comment by Joe L. — 1/13/2006 @ 11:03 am
Borrowing this from another blog I read yesterday, but don’t remember where: Kennedy’s asking for Rusher’s papers would be the equivalent of asking, during Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s hearings, for all the records of the ACLU. Can you imagine the storm?
Comment by John Harris — 1/13/2006 @ 11:06 am
I got the sense watching Alito, that he was employing some variation of the old public speakers trick of imagining his audience as all naked. On occasion he winced as he looked at Ted Kennedy! Now there’s a mental image, that will be troubling.
Comment by Tim Smith — 1/13/2006 @ 11:16 am
To Bork someone you sort of need the assistance of the victim. Certainly since the Clarence Thomas hearings the nominees have all been coached on how to deal with slander and character assasination in the committee room. The Democrats have continued to use a tactical plan long after it has become obvious that defenses have been erected. Indicative, perhaps, of the lack of ideas in the party that has been evident for the past few elections.
Comment by Mikey — 1/13/2006 @ 11:20 am
Lordy, will the Democrats and the MSM (not quite identical; really) ever wake up? You’d think they’d ask themselves, at least occasionally, ‘What can we say and do that will attract some swing voters, instead of just the hardcore loyalists?’ But they don’t. It’s sad, watching the oldest political party in the world decline into irrelevance.
Comment by Stephen M. St. Onge — 1/13/2006 @ 11:44 am
Biden time’ seems to be akin to ‘garbage time’ in the NBA: a time when the scrubs go play because the issue has been decided.
Comment by Steve White — 1/13/2006 @ 11:49 am
To place congress under the same questioning would empty Washington D.C.
Comment by Bill Bain — 1/13/2006 @ 11:50 am
old=McCarthyism new=Teddyism
Comment by hallf-vast conspirator — 1/13/2006 @ 12:53 pm
To place congress under the same questioning would empty Washington D.C. True, but oh what I would pay to see it.
Comment by DaveG — 1/13/2006 @ 12:53 pm
Ummm…so what’s the down side?
Comment by Andrew — 1/13/2006 @ 1:05 pm
Alito’s Justice Will Prevail First and foremost, the need for Republicans to present a defense for the nominee comes from the inability of the hearing process to allow the nominee to effectively defend himself. The only participant not given time to present counterarguments to cha…
Trackback by All Things Beautiful — 1/13/2006 @ 1:57 pm
“It’s sad, watching the oldest political party in the world decline into irrelevance.” I used to think so. Now, not so much.
Comment by Peg C. — 1/13/2006 @ 2:56 pm
Alito was “teddified”, that is, smeared in such an obviously biased and laughably incompetent way as to be guaranteed confirmation.
Comment by Brother Bark — 1/13/2006 @ 4:53 pm
I thought Sam Alito conducted himself in a calm and thoroughly professional manner. Watching Kennedy, playboy extraordinaire and cover-up artist of legend, pressing a working family man on ethical issues goes beyond ironical. Farce might be the more appropriate term. Justice would have been better served if it had been judge Alito presiding over a hearing to review Kennedy’s competence to be a Senator. The Rusher subpoena fuss was simply Ted’s effort to create melodrama and a perception of wrong doing. Fact is the Rusher documents were researched by an NY Times reporter and there was no paper present that Alito had signed in blood alongside weird esoteric symbols. Kennedy’s phoney self-righteousness becomes even more distasteful when you look at his own record. When he was at Harvard he was a member of an all-male club called OWL that was as resolutely pro-male as CAP.
Comment by Aidan Maconachy — 1/14/2006 @ 8:42 pm
#17 - I’m down with that. Can’t the Dems find someone with morals to moralize?
Comment by IcallMasICM — 1/17/2006 @ 7:26 am