The buck stops here?

[Charles Doyle]

Did y'all notice that Speaker Hastert began his much heralded statement to the press last week by quoting the expression "The buck stops here" (with an oblique but clear attribuiton to Harry Truman)--then proceded to deny any responsibility?  He rejected the buck!

Did he not know what the proverb MEANS--or was he able to assume that Fox News (and the other news outlets) would decline to point out the disconnect between the proverb and the substance of his statement?

The OED, for its earliest citation of "The buck stops here," cites Truman's own papers for 1952.  The Washington Post, 15 Dec. 1946, quotes (a youthful) Clark Clifford describing the plaque on the president's desk with the saying incribed on it.

According to Keyes's Quote Verifier, a friend of Truman's saw the saying on a sign on an Oklahoma prison warden's desk; the friend gave Turman a replica of the sign in Oct. 1945.

--Charlie

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