New Political Terms

I love new terms and vocabulary. One of the reasons I have enjoyed the Gene Wolfe tetralogy of the Urth of the New Sun. I was charmed to discover a new political phrase: to practice political hygiene. So we are not going to throw the bums out anymore, we are going to "practice political hygiene." We can add it to the pile of "swift boating" one's opponents and other useful terms.

Here's a new one from Josh Marshall. "Riding the tire swing," referring to reporters who are a bit too cozy with one or another candidate. Here's his post:

Riding the Tire Swing

Over the next week I think we're going to hear a lot of whining from the McCain campaign about how the press is so enamored of Barack Obama, all evidence to the contrary. So if and when you're at risk of actually buying that nonsense I commend to you again, this McCain campaign produced video of the press barbecue at the Sedona estate ...

--Josh Marshall

of course this is very unfair. Very. No reporter would let something so minor as a warm, close, partying relationship with a candidate and his family influence their reporting. I know this because they tell us so all the time.
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Update: I have been thinking about this for awhile. I think I had assumed that professional ethics for journalists would have precluded this type of socializing, but I guess not. Perhaps it is considered an acceptable practice to get the story. But it still takes me a bit aback. Sometimes I am naive.