dictionary

[Victor Steinbok]

It's rather futile, but Steve Benen invokes the dictionary authority in
his post this morning:

http://goo.gl/yRj3L
> "Compromising is one thing as long as you're compromising and moving
> in the direction of your principles," the right-wing lawmaker said.
> "If you're compromising and moving away from the direction of your
> principles, I'm not sure it's a compromise."
> And I'm not sure if Price has access to a dictionary. "Compromise"
> involves give and take, with concessions on both sides. To reach a
> resolution, compromise necessarily involves rivals accepting something
> less than their original goal.

It's easy to berate Republicans for their /actions/ that reject any
compromise that does not accept the entirety of their position, but
there is a perfectly benign, if charitable, interpretation of Price's
statement--when you compromise, you bring the /other/ party closer to
your principles.

This is not, however, a plausible excuse for the newly-minted candidate
Richard Mourdock's line:

> I thought of Price's recent comments again this morning after hearing
> the latest from Richard Mourdock, the Republicans' U.S. Senate nominee
> in Indiana. He told MSNBC's Chuck Todd this morning, among other
> things, "I certainly think bipartisanship ought to consist of
> Democrats coming to the Republican point of view."

And I don't think we need a dictionary for that one.

     VS-)

PS: I'm sure, someone will want to fix the possessive above--I'm only
too happy to offer fodder for such deliberations.

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