Word: comma
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...debate was about one jot of punctuation, a comma. But the issue was a big one, namely the Republican Party's platform on the sensitive subject of tax increases. Meeting in Dallas last week, the party's platform subcommittee on economic policy began its deliberations with a staff-written version blessed by the White House. The draft declared that Republicans "oppose any attempts to increase taxes which would harm the recovery and reverse the trend to restoring control of the economy to individual Americans...
That horrified the party's conservative firebrands, led by Congressmen Jack Kemp of New York, Vin Weber of Minnesota and Newt Gingrich of Georgia. They proposed to lock the door tight by inserting a comma after the word taxes...
...party would "oppose any attempts to increase taxes, which would harm the recovery and reverse the trend to restoring control of the economy to individual Americans." Punctuated that way, the plank would hold all tax hikes to be harmful. If necessary, proclaimed Weber, "we'll take that comma to the floor-and I'm only half joking...
...comma was approved by the subcommittee without dissent. Determined to avoid playing into Walter Mondale's hands by emphasizing the party's punctuation problems, Lewis tried to close ranks after the vote. Said he, through a brave smile: "I like commas...
Initial reactions to Fabius' appointment were mixed. Said Bernard Pons, secretary-general of the neo-Gaullist party: "The Communists have just said today, down to the last comma, what we have been repeating for three years: the government's economic and industrial policy is a failure." But in a backhanded compliment to Fabius, Republican Party Leader François Leotard noted that Mitterrand had chosen "one of the best. We must not underestimate our adversary...