Word: wonking
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...York Times reports that George W. was less than overwhelmed after sitting down with his vice-president's choice, former Indiana senator Dan Coats. Coats, who led the charge against gays in the military in 1993, is a favorite of the far-right crowd, but may not be the wonk Bush is looking for. And so Paul Wolfowitz, who did Asia-expert duties for Reagan and tutor duties for W. during the campaign, is back in the running...
...Governor, Jeb was a smirk-free policy wonk, working from dawn till dusk with no breaks for video games or naps. Yet he became a warm-up act, introducing W. as "my older, smarter and wiser brother." Sometimes appearing disengaged in the campaign, he volunteered to reporters, "You know, George doesn't have to win Florida to win the election," as if the pressure to produce were misplaced. During the final push, Jeb dodged inquiries about his effort by saying how much he loved his brother. W. joked that if Jeb didn't deliver, he'd "be washing...
...showbiz skills have eclipsed policy savvy as chief prerequisites for national politics, and politicians have changed their strategies as a result. This makes perfect sense to me. Only major caffeine abuse could keep me conscious through a policy guru's lecture on the tax code, but if the same wonk dons a pair of shades and blows a sax, I'll pay a cover charge. He might even get me to vote...
...most famous wonk to blow a sax was, of course, Bill Clinton, the main subject of Greil Marcus's new essay collection Double Trouble: Bill Clinton and Elvis Presley in a Land of No Alternatives. Marcus, a rock-n-roll critic best known for lively volumes on Elvis, Bob Dylan and the Sex Pistols, pinpoints Clinton's appearance on Arsenio Hall as the turnaround of his 1992 presidential bid. Considered a sure loser against Bush and Perot, Clinton swaggered on stage with his tenor saxophone, wailed a few bars of "Heartbreak Hotel" and instantly won enough support to capture...
...testimony of the vice president's first witness, political scientist Kimball Brace, was breathtakingly inept: The bedraggled wonk spent most of his time on the stand fumbling with 40-year-old voting machines and inadvertently shaking handfuls of chads onto Judge Sauls' desk. By the time Bush attorney Phil Beck had finished his cross examination, Brace had failed to support his theory that there might be structural problems or inconsistencies with the left-hand side of the Votomatic voting machine. He'd also all but admitted there was no reason to doubt the canvassing boards' ability to count their...