I’m glad to see Grant Barrett’s new book, Hatchet Jobs and Hardball: The Oxford Dictionary of Political Slang, getting play in today’s NY Times. It’s featured in Slang Only a Velcroid Would Love (by Tom Kuntz) in the Week in Review section:
Those seriously concerned with the vitality of our wonky Beltway blather may want to skip the next agriculture-subsidy roundtable to train their bifocals on “Hatchet Jobs and Hardball: The Oxford Dictionary of Political Slang,” edited by Grant Barrett (Oxford, 2004).
There, with some imagination, you can freshen your lexicon with some forgotten or fairly obscure, but nevertheless serviceable, bits of political argot. Impress your fellow sheeple!
Actorvist A politically involved actor. (Also, raptivist, the hip-hop version.)
Bafflegab Confusing or unintelligible speech, doublespeak…
And William Safire’s “Battleground” column quotes Barrett extensively on the phrases red state/blue state and swing voters.
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