George Bush’s Plants
Quote: “The vast majority of U.S. Attorneys, 80-85 percent, I would guess, are doing a great job, are loyal Bushies, etc.” Kyle Sampson, former counsel to the U.S. Attorney General, in an email.
Figure of Speech: anthimeria (an-thim-ER-ia), the verbing figure. From the Greek, meaning “one part for another.”
The Justice Department fired an unprecedented eight U.S. Attorneys last year, claiming they just weren’t up to snuff.
Now a steady stream of evidence shows that top White House officials had discussed an even more ambitious plan: to fire a fifth of all the nation’s leading federal prosecutors.
After these discussions, Will Smith showed up with his flashy thing and erased the memories of Bush consigliori Karl Rove and Alberto Gonzales.
Most embarrassing is an email written by former Justice bigshot Kyle Sampson, who seems to equate competence with Bushiness.
Bushies constitutes one of our favorite figures, the anthimeria. It can verb a noun, or noun a verb. In this case the figure does some grammatical origami: the proper noun Bush becomes the adjective Bushy (as in, loyal to Bush), which then turns back into a noun—Bushies.
“Bushies” sounds rather demeaning for the patriots who have done so much to—sorry, for—this country. But then, Figaro cannot recall having held high office.
Snappy Answer: “Sounds like they fired the wrong U.S. Attorneys.”
Posted: 17th, March 2007 | In: Uncategorized Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
