Washington floats on a fetid sea of clichés. Witness Speaker Boehner calling an increase in the debt limit (that is, permission to pay the bills that Congress already spent) as “a blank check” for President Obama. That’s a rhetorical trifecta: metaphor, distortion, and cliché in one all-too-typical political package.
So we were heartened to see the House Democratic whip, Steny Hoyer, stand a cliché on its hoary head in the New York Times.
Hoyer: They can’t take
‘yes’ for an answer.
The congressman is referring, of course, to the GOP, which keeps trying to walk gracefully while the Tea Party clings screaming to its leg.
To learn more delightful ways to abuse clichés, see the instructions we’ve posted on our sister site, WordHero.org.