Plenty of people write to dictionary editors asking for words to be added. It almost never works. But what if politicians make a special request? To urge adoption of the term upstander, as in “the opposite of bystander,” to honor those...
walking subcaucus n.— «But the most serious business of the night for the political parties was just coming—selecting the delegates. This is where issues and senate preference come into play. During the past weeks, each of the major...
blue-slipping n.— «I knew that judicial nominees could be blocked by a senator from their home state (a procedure called blue-slipping), but I had no idea a bill could be blocked from a floor vote by an anonymous hold.» —“Open...
PQing n.— «Minority Democrats, who had filibustered the bill for dozens if hours earlier in the session, delayed the inevitable for an additional nine hours of debate which came to an end early Thursday morning. That’s when majority...
gravy time n.— «Allies are probably—effective allies; I do not mean just free riders who are just on the gravy time—are the most valuable thing you can have in a war, because it is somebody else getting killed instead of you.» —by...