Mullings A Political Cyber Column By Rich Galen

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What's the Good Word?

Friday, March 30, 2001

The House passed a "marriage penalty" bill, yesterday, by a vote of 282-144. According to Donna Smith's report for Reuters, 64 Democrats crossed over to support the bill. Zero Republicans defected to the Democratic side.

The bill will save married taxpayers $400 Billion over the next ten years. Democrats said it was "excessive."

While the House was doing its good works on the floor, according to Smith's piece: "The tax writing House Ways and Means Committee on Thursday approved a third installment on the Bush plan - a $192 billion bill phasing out estate taxes by 2011. The measure is expected to go to the full House for a vote next Wednesday."

Guest-hosting for Oliver North on his radio program yesterday, I noted that no one on the planet would have thought that with a scant five seat majority, the Republican Leadership would have been able to move with such ease. Congressman Jerry Nadler (D-NY), who graciously spoke with me for 45 minutes, said it was because "even moderate Republicans are fiscal conservatives."

Good.

President Bush held his second press conference yesterday. The press office gave reporters 30 minutes notice, but as they were already in the briefing room, all they had to do was walk to their seats.

In a piece about that 30 minutes notice, the Associated Press' Jennifer Hoyt wrote:

"Bush's predecessor, Bill Clinton, could discuss any issue at any length. Bush, by his own omission, occasionally stumbles over his words. On Thursday, he poked fun at one such miscue when he fumbled the word underestimate."

On Friday, Mullings poked fun at Ms. Hoyt's misuse of the word "omission."

This, in contrast with the piece by her AP colleague, Carolyn Skorneck, about the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's confirmation hearing on John Bolton who has been nominated to be undersecretary of State for arms control and international security.

The thrust of the article was the grilling Bolton got from Presidential candidate John Kerry (D-Mass.). But, she also pointed out the support Bolton got from Committee chairman Jesse Helms (R-NC):

"Helms called Bolton 'a treasured friend' and repeated his earlier encomium that 'John Bolton is the kind of man with whom I would want to stand at Armageddon.'"

Once again, Mullings proves it is a full-service column. An "encomium" is defined as: "glowing and warmly enthusiastic praise" by the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary. Essentially the same meaning as panegyric, when you stop and think about it.

To see the full definition, pronunciation, and etymology of encomium (as well as panegyric) go to the Secret Decoder Ring.

Remember when candidate Bush said there were military units which would have to report "Not ready for duty, sir" and Clinton's Defense Secretary Bill Cohen howled "foul?"

This is the lead of James Dao's NY Times piece from Wednesday:

"The Army has downgraded one of its 10 active duty divisions to the second- lowest rating for wartime readiness, citing a lack of training and personnel caused by peacekeeping work in the Balkans, Pentagon and Congressional officials said."

Remember when candidate Bush said the economy was heading south prior to the election and the entire Clinton administration howled "foul?"

This is Glenn Somerville's Reuters lead in a piece which reports the Commerce Department has revised downward the Gross Domestic Product figures for the fourth quarter of 2000 to a barely visible one percent:

"The weakest U.S. economic growth in 5-1/2 years at the end of 2000 bit deeply into corporate balance sheets as profits shrank for the first time in two years, the government reported on Thursday."

Over in the UK, the BBC reports the signs of an impending national election are growing. Current betting is that an election will soon be called for May 3, 2001.

Interesting, isn't it, that our two political processes have grown so far apart that the British have no date certain when their campaigns will begin and we have no date certain when our campaigns will end.

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Copyright © 2001 Richard A. Galen

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