Jan 15, 2001. This posted on my record label website, which I was using as a staging ground for my topical writing. I didn’t consider this a blog. It was only two weeks into the 21st century proper, Bill Clinton was still president, and the word ‘blog’ wasn’t even two years old; online writing felt less efficient than direct mail. So my plan (accelerated by the Elian Gonzalez case, which, for some reason, enraged me as little else ever has) was to start a weekly xeroxed newsletter, available only to paid subscribers. I guess it would have been pieces like this? Thankfully it never happened.
This Saturday’s inauguration ends the 74 day post-election waiting period for my Nader button. The somber Helvetica RALPH will officially switch over from proper noun to more appropriate, finger-down-the-throat exclamation. This is the lonesome trail taken by the word ‘Bork’ fourteen years ago, another rare name-to-verb political conversion (Charles Boycott made the same trip a hundred years earlier). Robert Bork the man—denied his cushy Supreme Court post after hostile Senate confirmation hearings—became Bork the action. ‘Borking’ now means the partisan attack of conservatives by liberals. Use of the word generally implies a deep contempt for the rudeness of any political process that dares question rabidly right wing political appointees. Papa Bush’s man John Tower got his ass Borked two years later (although his undoing was less overtly political than for being a crumpled, womanizing sot who resembled a perfect cross between WC Fields and Benny Hill). The ghost of Bork hung over Clarence Thomas’ hearings in 1991. The word has fallen on hard times during the Clinton years. Borking, by definition, seems to be a misfortune that can only befall conservatives. So it with great relief that I can announce the opening of the first Borking season of the new century with tomorrow’s congressional hearings of Attorney General candidate John Ashcroft. Ashcroft's from the old school of leathery, hard-bitten sons of bitches and is himself expected to tack Borkward—that is, to not back down from any statements or stances and generally dish up the red meat for his right wing buddies. Chances are he’ll make it where Bork got Borked (as of Saturday, Republicans will again hold the tiebreaking vote in the Senate).
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Reality Breakdown to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.