Jeffords Warns GOP: Pressure Can Backfire

Washington Post ^ | may 4, 2003 | Helen Dewar

[FairOpinion]

misunderestimate
Is that really a word?

---

It is now.

http://edition.cnn.com/2003/EDUCATION/01/15/offbeat.bushisms.reut/

Don't misunderestimate Bushisms
Wednesday, January 15, 2003 Posted: 10:34 AM EST (1534 GMT)

BUSHISMS:
Misunderestimate To seriously underestimate.
Embetter To make emotionally better -- the opposite of embitter.
Resignate As in "They said this issue wouldn't resignate with the people."
Foreign-handed As in "I have a foreign-handed foreign policy."


LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- Don't "misunderestimate" Dubya. Those verbal Bushisms are beginning to "resignate" with the American people. Maybe they'll even "embetter" the English language.

They may have started out as verbal slip-ups but several of President George W. Bush's mangled phrases found their way on Tuesday to a list of the top words of 2002.

"There are already 11,000 instances of 'misunderestimate' on the Web. The more people use words, whether jocularly or seriously, the more likely they are to enter the language and last for generations," said Paul J.J. Payack, chairman of yourDictionary.com, which compiled the list.

Payack, a man who refuses to misunderestimate the power of a president to shape the language, said, "Our lists attempt to capture those ... innovations in word choice and usage that tell us something about ourselves."

The list of most important words of 2002 was drawn up with help from visitors to the yourDictionary.com Web site and from the site's group of linguists, who monitor the use of the English language around the world.

They include the so-called Bushisms; misunderestimate (to seriously underestimate), embetter (to make emotionally better -- the opposite of embitter), resignate (as in "They said this issue wouldn't resignate with the people") and foreign-handed (as in "I have a foreign-handed foreign policy").

In non-Bushisms, the post-September 11 world gave birth to "threat fatigue," while America's corporate and financial shenanigans introduced the verb to nasdaq (as in "His fortune was nasdaqued"), Nasdaq being the tech-heavy stock market.

There is also that well-known accounting practice disease known as Enronitis, and dot-communism (the conviction that everything on the Web should be free or, at least, paid for by someone else.)

But the most frequently used word on the planet, whatever the native language, is still "OK."

[montag813]

the Club for Growth, a conservative advocacy group, has run ads showing Voinovich and Snowe flanked by the French flag, which was not meant as a compliment.

A very ham-fisted attempt by the Club for Growth and their media firm Red Sea LLC. Accomplished absolutely nothing.

[LasVegasMac]

added to the spell checker.

LVM

[William McKinley]

The last time we tried this, a closet Democrat left our ranks, and one election later we took over the Senate. And the people got tax relief.

Sounds like a good deal to me.

[lainie]

There's realvideo and scripts of the ad here. pics here

another one of theirs:

heh!

[nothingnew]

eff you jeffords...you're hystory, as in hysterectomy, you POS.

FMCDH

[Bahbah]

Are you familiar with "strategery?"

[leprechaun9]

Jim "Scarlet Letter" Jeffords giving the Democrap response, that is appropriate. The Democraps needed a political whore and they got the biggest one in the Bob & Billie Club (formerly U.S. Senate)!

[Redwood71]

"The last time we tried this, a closet Democrat left our ranks, and one election later we took over the Senate."

More like we had to take it over again. And I'll bet the next to use the republican party to get elected just to run will be McCain. He couldn't beat Bush using the GOP last time, he won't even get that close this time.

But Jeffords brings something else to mind. Since he is no longer a republican, how is he going to get re-elected from a conservative voting state if he is a liberal and has to run against a real Bush backing conservative? Good luck and good bye Jim!

[LasVegasMac]

Yes, that one I've heard.

LVM

[LasVegasMac]

Thank you - great stuff!

LVM

[sd-joe]

>> "I can you are series."

Yes, Hugh and series. :)

[ThreePuttinDude]

Snowe and Voinovich

---

[F16Fighter]

Jeffords said in delivering the Democrats' response to Bush's weekly radio address...

This nitwit's IQ has fallen to single digits...

Maybe Vermonters can elect a cadavor next time.

[LasVegasMac]

spell checkers suck.

LVM

[jackbill]

Hey, Jimbo. How does it feel to be constantly referred to as the "ranking member"? How does it feel to be constantly referred to as "the minority"?

Suck it up, Jimbo, it ain't going to get any better.

[VRWC For Truth]

This can backfire both ways. Snowe and Voinovich can bolt, but the fury that will be unleashed on them will not be pretty. Time for some tough talk at the woodshed. You are either with us or against us. Choose wisely.

[jocko12]

JEFFY-WHO!!!!

[lainie]

[William McKinley]

I wish Vermont was a conservative voting state. Dean was Governor, Bernie Sanders (openly socialist) is the Representative, and the other Senator is Patrick Leahy.

If that is a conservative voting state, give me a liberal voting one.