Quote: “If the Democrats can’t landslide the election this year, they ought to just wrap up, close down.” Ralph Nader, after announcing his third run for president.

Figure of Speech: anthimeria (an-thih-MER-ia), the verbing figure. From the Greek, meaning “one part for another.”

Here we go again. When Democrats accuse him of being the Spoiler Redux, Nader replies with an anthimeria, which changes one part of speech, such as a noun (“landslide”), into another part of speech (“landsliding”).

The rumpled crusader maintains that that his campaign shouldn’t affect the outcome at all.  But it’ll jack up his ego like a pimped-out Corvair.

Figaro interviewed Nader in 2000, months before he denied Democrats a win in the crucial Florida balloting. When Figaro asked if someone put a gun to his head and told him to vote for either Gore or Bush, which he would choose, Nader answered without hesitation: “Bush.” Al Gore, he said, had “totally betrayed” his environmental stand. “If you want the parties to diverge from one another,” Nader continued, “have Bush win.”

Mission accomplished.

Snappy Answer:  “So you want to see them close down?”