Luntz is writing a book and removing all "ic"s from the name Democratic

[Robbien]

And GWB refuses to say the word Democratic

There's no great mystery about the motives behind this deliberate misnaming. "Democrat Party" is a slur, or intended to be--a handy way to express contempt. Aesthetic judgments are subjective, of course, but "Democrat Party" is jarring verging on ugly. It fairly screams "rat." At a slightly higher level of sophistication, it's an attempt to deny the enemy the positive connotations of its chosen appellation.

Hertzberg says that Sen. Joe McCarthy "made it a regular part of his arsenal of insults," but the usage was pushed in the 1990s by Newt Gingrich and Frank Luntz, whom he quotes:

"Those two letters actually do matter," Luntz said the other day. He added that he recently finished writing a book--it's entitled Words That Work--and has been diligently going through the galley proofs taking out the hundreds of "ic"s that his copy editor, one of those partisan Dems, had stuck in.

President George W. Bush, unlike his GOP predecessors GHW Bush and
Ronald Reagan, uses the party slur exclusively. And while some MSM journos follow suit, a few such as Washington Post blogger Dan Froomkin, object, pointing out that "Bush's alleged commitment to bipartisanship would probably be easier to swallow if he referred to the opposition party by its proper name."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20070120/cm_huffpost/039105

[Mister Ed]

1. Alright, screw 'em then. From now on, they're the Publicans.

pub·li·can

NOUN: 1. Chiefly British The keeper of a public house or tavern. 2. A collector of public taxes or tolls in the ancient Roman Empire. 3. A collector of taxes or tribute from the public.

[OregonBlue]

19. Publicans took from the poor to give to the rich!! Catholic Encyclopidia says:

Publican, in the Gospels is derived from the publicanus of the Vulgate, and signifies a member or employee of the Roman financial companies who farmed the taxes. From the time of the Republic the Roman State relieved itself of the trouble of collecting the taxes in the provinces by putting up the taxes of each in a lump sum to auction.

The highest bidder received the authorization to extort the sum from the province in question. Such a system afforded ample opportunity for rapacious exactions on the part of the company and its officials, and the abuses were often intolerable.

On account of these, and more, perhaps, because of the natural though impotent Jewish hatred of the Roman supremacy, those of the Jews who found it profitable thus to serve the foreign rulers were objects of execration to their countrymen. In the Gospel narrative we find them as a class habitually coupled with "sinners" and the "heathen".

The attitude of Christ towards this, as well as other despised classes, was that of an uplifting sympathy. One great reproach cast upon Him by His enemies, the self-righteous Scribes and Pharisees, was His friendship for, and association with publicans and sinners; and consistently with this conduct it pleased Him to choose as one of the twelve Apostles Levi or Matthew the Publican

I think it fits them to a tee!!!!!

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

25. Rape - Public - Cans (they rape the public up the ass) = RapePublicCans

either that or ReNAMBLAcans.

[BlooInBloo]

39. Look world!! We can be just as big jackasses as republicnas! Doesn't that make you...

... want to vote for Democrats?

Sheesh. We're supposed to be DIFFERENTIATING ourselves for republicans, people. Not stepping up to the plate in the So-You-Wanna-Be-A-Fucktard competition.

[Snotcicles]

41. Luntz, what a gift to humanity. What a legacy ( life's work, Semantics) nt

[Mister Ed]

44. Um, I was kinda joking around there y'know... n/t

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

46. Hey, If The IC Matters So Much, Just Call Them Republans. n/t

[HughBeaumont]

2. Fitting. I refuse to call him "President". Tit for Tat.

He was SElected, not Elected.

Too bad he can't be fired because no one can see a smoking gun.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. Another sign of desperation.

Luntz is a craven sitzpinkler cut from the same crusty, fetid cloth as KKKarl Rove. The people who read his book are the same 25% backwash who would support Bush and the dead-ender Republickers anyhow.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

8. Sitzpinkler

:applause: :applause: :woohoo: :applause: :applause: My new favorite word! Thanks ocelot -- and your comments are spot-on.

[John Gauger]

4. Burn.

"Bush's alleged commitment to bipartisanship would probably be easier to swallow if he referred to the opposition party by its proper name." That made me laugh.

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[flamin lib]

6. Words do have power and the MFers are good at phrasing.

Hell, they have a think tank dedicated to nothing but phraseology.

[Cha]

12. Yeah, in 2000 they were trying

to get away with calling us DemocRATS..they had to pull it, though.

They're just fucking fascistspigs.

[last_texas_dem]

7. WTF

I mean, it does make them sound like a bunch of uneducated idiots, but I guess it's the partisan Republican hacks' business to use whatever dumbass slur they want in their media, books, etc. But what irks the hell out of me is when elected Republicans use "Democrat Party", "Democrat member", etc. in public speeches in the House. I caught a few minutes of a speech some whiny wingnut Congressman, Patrick McHenry I think, was giving regarding the Democrats' "First 100 Hours" and he couldn't resist showing his ass, throwing in "Democrat" everytime he should say "Democratic." I think, now that the Democrats control the House, they should make an effort to reprimand any Republican, anytime they do start that bullshit while speaking on the House floor, for slurring fellow House members. Maybe eventually they'll give up this elementary bullshit... though I must say it seems to be one of the few things they actually do well.

[WiseButAngrySara]

9. Be sure and vote it up! ....n/t

[KansDem]

10. Well, let's help him put them back!

Here, you childish whiner. We're returning the "icees!"

[KansDem]

24. My previous post was intended for Luntz...

Not for the DUer...:blush:

I read my post again and it sounded like I could be referring to the OP...but I wasn't...really!

[sam sarrha]

11. * has great contempt and disregard of anything proper..

[Robbien]

13. How can we have respect for the office of the president

if the president doesn't have respect for the office of the president.

The president of the USA goes around calling the opposition party by an improper name. Can't get much ruder than that and he is the POTUS!

[mwb970]

43. Jeez, he also says Democrats side with the terrorists.

Stuff like that is just wildly inappropriate. Of course Bush has disgraced his office in much worse ways than that, in the realm of actions rather than words.

[Mz Pip]

14. Frankic Luntzic

is a partisanic whoric. His Republic Party has run out of ideas, so he re write the language. IC.

Mz Pip
:dem:

[MoonRiver]

15. Just makes them look like the illiterate losers they are.

If they keep it up, everyone will know they barely passed third grade. :dunce:

[EFerrari]

16. English be demand!

:rofl:

[Cleita]

17. My thoughts exactly. n/t

[Smarmie Doofus]

18. If In other words , 'Democrat' is properly used as a *noun* ....

...not an adjective and they refuse to use the proper adjective ("Democratic") where an adjective is called for.

Equity would dictate that individual members of the other party be deemed *Republicans* and the adjectival form be "Republicanist" or "Republicanite".

A bit unwieldy, for sure, but symmetrical and utterly evenhanded. "The Republicanist Party".


What say ye, grammarians?

Far as I'm concerned, anything that annoys them will do.

[Gormy Cuss]

20. I prefer to remove two letters from the Republican party name, tit for tat.

It's the Publican party, and I don't mean it in the British sense of keepers of a place for drunks. They're the party of tax collectors and graft takers.

[OregonBlue]

27. Yah, read this description from the Catholic Encyclopedia:

Publican, in the Gospels, is derived from the publicanus of the Vulgate, and signifies a member or employee of the Roman financial companies who farmed the taxes. From the time of the Republic the Roman State relieved itself of the trouble of collecting the taxes in the provinces by putting up the taxes of each in a lump sum to auction. The highest bidder received the authorization to extort the sum from the province in question. Such a system afforded ample opportunity for rapacious exactions on the part of the company and its officials, and the abuses were often intolerable. On account of these, and more, perhaps, because of the natural though impotent Jewish hatred of the Roman supremacy, those of the Jews who found it profitable thus to serve the foreign rulers were objects of execration to their countrymen. In the Gospel narrative we find them as a class habitually coupled with "sinners" and the "heathen". The attitude of Christ towards this, as well as other despised classes, was that of an uplifting sympathy. One great reproach cast upon Him by His enemies, the self-righteous Scribes and Pharisees, was His friendship for, and association with publicans and sinners; and consistently with this conduct it pleased Him to choose as one of the twelve Apostles Levi or Matthew the Publican

[Orangepeel]

21. yes, words have meaning, but this is just stupid

republicans are usually very good at renaming issues (e.g., "death tax"), but this one is just silly. Nobody, but nobody, is going to think less of the Democratic party because some idiot calls it the "Democrat Party".

This is like if your name was, say, Carolyn, and somebody who didn't like you kept deliberately calling you Caroline (with a long i sound) even though they knew they were pronouncing it incorrectly. It would be childish, petty, disrespectful and designed solely to irritate you. But it wouldn't make you look bad.

[Captain Hilts]

22. He lied about his survey population about the Contract on America. nt

[Shakespeare]

23. Ya know....just...fuck him.

Seriously. Fuck him.

Craven asshole.

[woo me with science]

26. LOL The idiot doesn't even know how to do a search and replace:

"...taking out the hundreds of "ic"s that his copy editor, one of those partisan Dems, had stuck in.":hurts:

[UTUSN]

28. K&R #5 for, I knew LUNTZ fueled. Am amazed it went back to McCARTHY n/t

[nicknameless]

29. Rethugs are nothing but con artists. So why not *republi-CONS*? Check out the definitions:

Here's more reasons why republi-CONS is a good choice. Basic definitions of the word:

Con artist noun (ALSO con man)
a person who deceives other people by making them believe something false or making them give money away

Con (PRISONER)
noun SLANG
a convict

Con (TRICK)
verb -nn- INFORMAL
to make someone believe something false, usually so that they will give you their money or possessions:
She felt she had been conned into buying the car.
Thieves conned him out of his life savings.
He managed to con £20 out of them (= get that amount from them by deceiving them).

Con
noun INFORMAL
a trick to get someone's money, or make them do what you want:
It's a con - you get half the food for twice the price!
a con trick

Con (DISADVANTAGE)
noun INFORMAL
a disadvantage or a reason for not doing something:
One of the cons of buying a bigger car is that it costs more to run.
You have to weigh up all the pros and cons of the matter before you make a decision.

[badgerpup]

30. Excuse me while I laugh my ass off and bang my head against the desk.

"He added that he recently finished writing a book--it's entitled Words That Work--and has been diligently going through the galley proofs taking out the hundreds of "ic"s that his copy editor, one of those partisan Dems, had stuck in."
(emphasis mine)

Is it just me, or does this sound like a childishly petulant sort of thing to do? Never mind the DemoCRAT-RAPEublican quarrel...
this sounds more like the Freedom Fries Fiasco.

It is considered a sign of at least nominal respect to somebody to take the trouble to get their name correct.
Yet the 'pubs are not only going out of their way to get it wrong, but they're MAKING AN ISSUE of how much effort they're putting into getting it wrong...
:dunce:
And then they wonder why the 'DemoCRAT' party isn't exactly falling over its collective feet to work with the people across the aisle...
:eyes:
There's gotta be something in the water in Washington D.C. that promotes this kind of collective stupidity, shortsightedness and schoolyard behavior.
It's the only explanation I can think of...:shrug:

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

31. Beat me to it/Republicon

nm

[PsN2Wind]

32. From now on, I'll only refer to him as

LUNT!!!!!!!!!!

[Junkdrawer]

33. Repukes....They simply regurgitate what their authoritarian leaders feed them.

Short. Descriptive.

[Harper_is_Bush]

34. Luntz is an evil little egocentric man. nt

[OneBlueSky]

35. the way to combat this is to ridicule those who say "Democrat Party" . . .

ask them if they're really that stupid that they can't use the party's proper name . . . and laugh at them . . . that's what fools are for, after all . . .

[Eurobabe]

36. Re-puhb-lic-CONS people, accent on the last syllable

Accent on the CON part. We can make it a slur too.

[omega minimo]

37. Then let's get back by calling the Republicans.....

Nazis

[Flabbergasted]

38. Kick

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

40. It's all silly, but the whole point is to be disrespectful.

It's always rude and disrespectful to call someone by a name other than the name they've chosen. So I can imagine a conversation like this, with a Republican acquaintance named "Don" who snidely refers to the "Democrat" party:

Me: You know, Tom, the correct name is the Democratic party.

Don: Who cares, what's the big deal? The name is close enough, so why should it matter to you? And my name isn't Tom, it's Don.

Me: Well, I like the name Tom better than Don, so that's what I'll call you, Tom.

Don: That's not very nice.

Me: I guess not. You'd know, since you're a good Christian, aren't you, Tom? Don't you go to the Baptistical church downtown?

Don: No, I'm Lutheran. And anyhow, they call it the Baptist church.

Me: Oh, then you go to the Lutheranic church?

Don: Lutheran. And stop calling me Tom.

Me: I thought you said names didn't matter if they were close enough. You know your name is Don and you're a Lutheran, so what's the big deal if I say your name is Tom and you go to the Lutheranic church? Why does it matter?

Don: Well, I have the right to be called by my real name and it's disrespectful to use the wrong name for my church.

Me: But it's OK for you to use the wrong name for my political party, Tom? So I guess you won't mind if I say you belong to the Republicker party? It's close enough....


I hope I get a chance to have this conversation.

[Kurovski]

42. Luntz is reclaiming all the "ic(k)s for himself, the rightful owner.

[IDemo]

45. "Republan" sounds about right (removes that offensive "ic" they hate)