In search of redundancy.
DougJ at Balloon Juice:
I did some searchers on “dithering” in the New York Times and Washington Post archives. In the Times, there were eleven uses of the word post-Cheney out of a total of 47 in the past year. In the Post, there were 36 post-Cheney out of a total of 46 in the past 12 months.
Michael Gerson, Jackson Diehl, and David Broder have all accused the president of “dithereing” post-Cheney. Gerson also used the phrase about a week before Cheney’s speech. Ronald Krebs and Dana Milbank also wrote pieces accusing Obama of dithering before Cheney’s speech (Jim Hoagland also wrote a piece, praising the dithering). The phrase seems to have originated with Bob Schieffer on “Face the Nation” on October 4.
It’s interesting how these words take off and I think it’s likely that neocons settled on it and that Krebs, Gerson, and Cheney all using it within a week of each other was no accident (Diehl and Broder fall more in the category of useful idiots).
It’s rare that I feel outsmarted by the right, but this is one thing they do that is so skillful, I almost feel humbled. Most of it is mindless repetition of some new buzzword that they can all latch onto and drive into the public consciousness within days. But the thing that always fascinates me is how they find those words. How come it became “dithering” and not “lollygagging”? Could it have been lollygagging if they all agreed on it? I think not…too comical a choice. The word has to be subversively subliminal, as if it were the most obvious choice. Could it have been “biding his time”? Perhaps, but that’s three words, and far too obviously insulting. No, folks, it’s DITHERING, and it was made most famous by Dick Cheney, who oversaw our army fucking around for over six years and watching the country descend into disorder before passing it off to Obama. It goes without saying that it’s also against all wisdom on the subject to expect Obama to make a quick decision rather than a correct one, as virtually anything from Cheney’s mouth is guaranteed to be wrong.
Once the lexicon is established, it’s mere brainless repetition, the only thoughts generated directed towards new combinations and permutations. I guess they’re saving brainpower for the quest to find the next big word?
-jb
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