Borked, Craiged, and Vittered?

Back in the 80s, the ultimate epithet for the Right was to accuse someone of "Borking" a nominee for high office. Then came "Nannygate" for those on the Left who hired domestic workers without legitimate resident status in this country. Along comes "Vittered" for someone accused of heterosexual indiscretion and still evades removal from office. Now, there is "Craiged" for someone who is accused of sexual misbehavior with someone of the same sex. My preference is "Bushwhacked" for poor citizens losing civil liberties to a chief executive who disregards the Constitution. If this is (fair & balanced) etymology, so be it.

[x New York Fishwrap]
D.C.’s Latest Verb: To Be Larry Craiged
By The Editorial Board

Washington, D.C. likes its eponyms — taking the names of people in the news and giving them to something larger. And Washington being Washington, it’s often something negative.

Anyone in the cut-and-thrust of capital politics knows what it means to be “Borked.” In the 20 years since Judge Robert Bork’s nomination to the Supreme Court was voted down by the Senate after super-heated hearings, the word has been recognized by the Oxford English Dictionary and political jargon has never been the same.

A “Zoe Baird problem,” named for the failed Clinton Administration Attorney General nominee, means that a nomination is in danger because of the nominee’s failure to pay taxes for a nanny or other domestic worker.

The latest eponymous coinage is being “Larry Craiged” ­– caught in a men’s room sting by the vice squad and accused of illicit homosexual activity.

Senator Craig is, of course, still vehemently proclaiming his innocence and his heterosexuality. The TV drama Boston Legal gave Mr. Craig the benefit of the doubt on a recent episode. In it, a senior partner was caught in a men’s room dragnet even though he was innocent of any misbehavior. He was “Larry Craiged,” his defense counsel argued in court.

The defense attorney ticked off assorted crimes and misdemeanors in the capital and wondered why Mr. Craig became notorious while Senator David Vitter, Republican of Louisiana, suffered no such fate after his phone number appeared in the records of a woman known as the “D.C. Madam.”

The lawyer was right. While Mr. Craig is the subject of an ethics committee investigation, and will likely soon be leaving the Senate, Mr. Vitter has not suffered for his apparent (heterosexual) misconduct.

Which suggests another word. “Vittered” — to be let off the hook, for no apparent reason, for conduct at least as bad as those who are being punished.

Copyright © 2007 The New York Times

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