Word: remarkable
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Ever since his flippant remark three weeks ago about the presence of "a black, a woman, two Jews and a cripple" (see ESSAY) on his coal-leasing commission, Watt's chances of staying in office have ebbed almost daily. The Secretary long ago alienated the left and center with his policy of opening vast tracts of Government-owned land to commercial exploitation. Now the Republican right fears that he will be a 1984 campaign liability to G.O.P candidates...
...late as the end of September, White House aides were predicting that Watt would ride out the storm, then quietly resign in early 1984. Now they doubt he will last the month. Reagan is exceedingly reluctant to fire Watt under pressure. The President remarked last week that the Secretary had "done a fine job" and did not deserve to be ousted for "a stupid remark." White House Spokesman Larry Speakes said that Reagan would not feel bound by a Senate vote on whether Watt should go, however it might come...
...seriously, folks: What about James Watt? Is it simply a matter of a fellow with poor comic delivery? That most recent remark, the one about the new coal-leasing review commission consisting of "a black, a woman, two Jews and a cripple." It nearly got Watt ousted a few weeks ago. It might yet. Why? Surely the substance of his remark is not taboo. In the right hands, with the right tone, a joke about the overexacting demands of affirmative action could result in genuine, harmless hilarity. But not with Watt. When he tells a joke, the prisoners start...
...part this is due to Watt's choice of language-the word cripple in this instance, which has the sound of a flat slap in the face. Yet a few days after Watt's remark, in a bizarre protest demonstration in his defense, a man on crutches supported the usage, citing other contexts where "cripple" is benign. True enough. Former Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz forced himself out of the Ford Administration by telling a cruel and tasteless joke about "coloreds"; yet Dick Gregory could title his autobiography Nigger, and Flip Wilson won love and fortune by creating...
...Gertrude Stein's remark to him ("You are all a lost generation") he used as motto for The Sun Also Rises, whence it took its wide currency...