"Third Rail of American Politics" (Social Security) (1982, Tip O'Neill?)

[Jesse Sheidlower]

On Fri, Jan 14, 2005 at 12:51:16AM -0500, Bapopik at AOL.COM wrote:
> ...
> I don't know much about American political slang (I'm in the middle of ten
> thousand years of parking tickets, some divine punishment from God), so I
> turned  to the expert source. That would be Oxford University Press and HATCHET
> JOBS AND  HARDBALL: THE OXFORD DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN POLITICAL SLANG (2004),
> edited by  Grant Barrett. "Third rail of American politics" is not there!!

It is, however, in OED.

I'd love to get a 1981 quote, which is the date attributed to the
use in the Congressional Record quote Ben posted, but for now our
best is May 1982.

Jesse Sheidlower
OED