Gravitas

[Elizabeth Gibbens]

Dear Greg:

This is a great point about McLaughlin.

In fact, I used to work for Mr. Safire. Now I am just a regular member of
the ADS, which I enjoy tremendously.

Elizabeth Gibbens


----- Original Message -----
From: Gregory {Greg} Downing <gd2 at IS2.NYU.EDU>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, July 27, 2000 8:52 AM
Subject: Re: Gravitas


> At 11:10 PM 7/26/2000 +0800, you wrote:
> >I fear there's a long road to travel from this
> >particular use of gravitas, or the ones in Fred's and the MoA quotes
> >relating to an attribute of Roman culture, to the quality that
> >everyone seems to think that George W. and Clinton may not have
> >enough of and that Dick Cheney and Al Gore are dripping with an
> >overdose of.
> >
> >larry [horn]
> >
>
> I have a vague recollection that the dissemination of "gravitas" as a term
> in American political discourse was contributed to by John McLaughlin --
an
> erstwhile Jesuit who was trained before the Catholic Church's shift from
> Latin to modern vernaculars in the 1960's. McL would have used the term on
> his weekend television program way back in the 1980's. Is my memory
accurate
> on that? Anyway, the show was popular viewing with political and
> political-reporting types. One might want to investigate McLaughlin's
> possible role in popularizing this as a political term. I imagine Wm.
Safire
> would have some information on this. (Didn't his assistant posted the
> original query, or am I remembering that wrong?)
>
>
> Greg Downing, at greg.downing at nyu.edu or gd2 at is2.nyu.edu