Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

By now y'all will have heard of, probably giggled at, and possibly ranted about the significance of, the latest verbal gaffe by our president. The gist of it is that Bush said his administration is "looking for ways to harm America". Although I've got no love for this administration, nor any inclination to excuse (or fail to mock) Bush's musutterances, my gut reaction to this one differed from what I've been hearing so far.

"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we,"

When I first heard this, my immediate reaction was, "hey, that can be deliberately misunderstood in a giggleworthy manner," not, "oooh, Bush misspoke," or "he said he's trying to hurt America." No, I heard it as, "They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and [in order to stay a step ahead of them] neither do we." So I don't think this is properly a "Bushism", a case of his fumbling or butchering the language, or a Freudian slip. I think the phrasing is a mistake because it's so easy to twist for irony or snarkiness, not because he actually said something stupid.

So laugh it up, but laugh in silly-mode, not in "look, we found another sign he has to go" mode. He does have to go, for all our sakes (my fellow citizens and my foreign friends), but this one doesn't go on the list of reasons. This one is in the "look how clever we can be with language since he gave us an opening" pile, which is a very different thing.

That said, I'll now proceed to giggle.