Potomac fever (1940)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

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http://www.slate.com/id/2134512/
Potomac Fever has seized the Bush White House. That sickness, as
defined by the Texans Bush brought with him to the White House in
2000, afflicts the self-important who stay in Washington too long.
Sufferers forget that they work for The People and fall in love with
the perks of their job. Clay Johnson, the head of White House
personnel in the first term, set up a special Web site to inform White
House aides about the symptoms associated with the disease.
<http://www.whitehouse.gov/results/leadership/potomacfever.html>
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RHUD: <http://www.infoplease.com/dictionary/Potomac+fever>

To be included in the next batch of OED3 entries, perhaps? The Oxford
Dictionary of American Political Slang has it from 1944.

1940 _Cullman (Ala.) Democrat_ 18 Apr. 11/1 Looks half like the Old
Boys there in the Senate are coming down with the Potomac fever.


--Ben Zimmer

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