Word: kumquat
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...President, the press secretary reports blandly, has suffered "a slight circulatory problem of the head." That's spin doctor -- better yet, parody spin doctor -- for a stroke that has left the Commander in Chief an aspiring kumquat...
...Tricky Two-Step. Complex sentences are a duplicitous politician's delight. Suppose a candidate plans to oppose kumquat subsidies. Saying so outright to a group of farmers would reap no votes -- just permanent enmity. Instead, the aspirant might try to finesse it like this: "No one in the Senate is more keenly aware of the courage and the grit of kumquat growers than myself, but we should never lose sight of how the federal deficit is robbing our children." It is an example of that classic two-step -- a sonorous lie followed by a fleeting glimpse of unpleasant reality...