Word: detractors
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...contractors, and it cost $33 billion. The quest also cost the lives of three fellow astronauts: Gus Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee, who had died on the launching pad the previous year. Some critics sneered at the outpouring of ingenuity and treasure. A "moondoggle," one detractor labeled the Apollo 8 flight. A Congressman termed it a "garish spectacle." It could be seen -- and was -- as history's most elaborate form of escapism...
...critics are raising their voices. Among them is the mayor's least likely detractor: himself. After a flood of revelations about corruption in New York City government, the feisty Koch came forth last week with an uncharacteristic mea culpa. Said he: "I am embarrassed. I am chagrined. I am absolutely mortified that this kind of corruption could have existed and that I did not know...
...forced into a more public role, especially when it comes time to explain Administration positions on Capitol Hill. Congressional Democrats-and a few of Clark's rivals within the Administration-relish the prospect, believing that such appearances will lay bare his shaky grasp of foreign policy. Says one detractor: "I think he'll eventually hang himself." But for the moment, friend and foe alike may find it worthwhile to drop by and see Uncle Bill...
Self-deprecation is often a pre-emptive strike to steal a detractor's thunder. At times, the reader half hopes that Janet Malcolm will tell Green that he is too hard on himself, that he really is an intelligent, sympathetic man who is defending the faith in an age of pill popping and package deals. But she maintains an orthodox silence with rewarding results. Eventually Green's faults and peeves make his good qualities even more believable. Technically, he also serves as a vital navigational point in the author's explorations. She discusses a number of analytic...