(dis)agreement with "all politics is local"

[Alan Baragona]

>
> Checking google, I find that Gov-to-be Rell is far from alone.
> Indeed, there are 3040 hits on "All politics are local" to 13000 for
> "All politics is local", although presumably not everyone in the
> former camp would share the view that the singular represents bad
> grammar.  I just hadn't realized the plural here was as popular as it
> appears to be.

I remember back in the mid-1960's, former Pittsburgh Pirate Wilbur "Vinegar
Bend" Mizell was running for Congress in N.C. (his main qualifications
apparently being that he was a left handed pitcher and a right wing
Republican) and sent out a campaign brochure in which he said he'd been
warned by a friend that "politics are dirty business."  And he still won!

Alan B.