The 10th Circuit has a new judge, Robert Bacharach, confirmed 93-0, with high praise from the new judge's home state Republican senators. But the Oklahoma Gazette, owned by the judge's brother, struck a different note in this congratulatory editorial:
Chicken-Fried News is certainly impressed with all the accolades about the judge — who happens to be the older brother of this rag’s editor-in-chief — but we must take issue with Coburn’s assessment that “you cannot find a blemish on this man in terms of his personal integrity.”
Where’s the integrity in overachieving just for the sake of making your younger brother look like a comparative slacker? Where’s the integrity in having beat the crap out of that aforementioned brother? And would it kill him to pick up the tab once in a while?
Note: an earlier version of this post used the adjective "fulsome" to describe statements on the floor of the Houseo of Representatives about the judge from his home state Senators. A reader challenged the word. As it turns out, the late William Safire addressed the use of the word in a 2009 On Language column, "Fulsome. " It describes how the word's meaning has changed over time:
In the 20th century ... the original, positive meaning of “abundant” made a comeback that now causes semantic confusion. To some, fulsome praise means “full-fledged acknowledgment of worthiness”; to others, it means “overboard apple-polishing; nauseating flattery.” Many dictionaries give both definitions and don’t take sides, in “usage notes” merely tipping off the Language Slobs to watch out for denunciation from the Language Snobs.
Wishing not to be considered a Language Slob, I changed "fulsome" to a less contentious adjective.
