The Two-Letter Insult

There are a lot of disheartening things about the harsh political partisanship that has been the sand in the gears of our government, but one of the most disheartening is the level of childish insult to which some will descend. A prime example came in - of all places - President Bush's State of the Union address on January 23rd, in which he said, "Some in this Chamber are new to the House and Senate — and I congratulate the Democrat majority. "

As you may know from recent commentary, Republicans often use the term Democrat rather than Democratic as the adjective to describe the other party. It's a little thing, but it infuriates the Democrats and thus has become a childish and petty way for Republicans to dig at their ideological opponents. That the President chose to do it in the forum of a major address to a joint session of Congress is a sign of casual disrespect. When asked about it in an interview with National Public Radio yesterday, the President laughed and said that he hadn't been aware he'd said it, and didn't do so deliberately; indeed, the printed copies of the speech distributed by the White House used the correct term. But the fact that the Chief Executive would automatically, if unknowingly, use a term known to anger his political opponents sends a clear and unfortunate signal.

There are enough differences of principle to divide the conservative Republicans from the liberal Democrats without either side aggravating the situation by going out of its way to show petty disrespect. We ought to be able to expect better from those we elect to lead the nation.

Yesterday my daughter sent me this picture, said to be the 10,000 year-old fossilized remains of a politician recently unearthed in an archaeological dig in Washington, DC:

As a popular saying in my office goes, it's like a clown on fire...sort of funny, but sort of sad.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo