President Bush On, Er, Honour And Honesty

President Bush has confidence in honour and honesty…

Quote: “This is an honest, honorable man, in whom I have confidence.” President Bush on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Figure of Speech: hyperbaton (hy-PER-ba-ton), the word-order shift. From the Greek, meaning “to step over.”

Want to tell when a politician is uncomfortable with his own words? Watch for departures from his usual syntax. Instead of showing confidence in the attorney general, today’s quote betrays a lack of confidence.

A confident Bush would have said, “This is an honorable man. I have confidence in him.”

Instead, he employs an awkward word order that grammarians use to avoid dangling a participle (“in whom I have confidence”). And he adds a protests-too-much “honest.”

Sure, some speechwriter may have fed him those words. But Bush is a famously stern editor. He insists on simple, direct, not necessarily grammatical sentences. Except when he doesn’t.

Polish that resume, Berto.

Snappy Answer: “He’s the sort of crony whose incompetence up with which you too much put.”

Figaro

Anorak

Posted: 27th, April 2007 | In: Uncategorized Comment | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink