cesspool or hot tub?

[Baker, John]

        According to this article on UPI News, 1/7/2003, it was coined
by Stanton Evans:


        <<Veteran journalist Kenneth E. Grubbs, Jr., has been named the
new director of the National Journalism Center, a Washington-based group
that teaches aspiring journalists the skills required to report
political and public policy news.

        Grubbs replaces the legendary M. Stanton Evans, the onetime
editor of the Indianapolis News who founded the NJC in the mid-1970s.
Evans, who once famously observed that the problem with conservatives
who come to Washington is that they arrive expecting a cesspool and
instead discover a hot tub, retired in September 2002 though he remains
involved with the program.>>


        In spite of the claim that it was "famously observed," a Google
search for <<"stanton evans" cesspool "hot tub">> produces no hits.

John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of Benjamin Zimmer
Sent: Monday, October 23, 2006 9:31 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: cesspool or hot tub?

On 10/23/06, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Here's a new political quote by Anonymous.
>
>   A CNN correspodent this a.m. quoted "somone involved in the Abramof
> investigation" as follows:
>
>   "Some conservatives go to Washington thinking it's a cesspool, but
> they finally decide it's a hot tub."
>
>   A lightning-fast search reveals an example from March 13 here :
>
>   http://www.house.gov/petri/newslett/mar13_06.htm

That's from the newsletter of Rep. Tom Petri (R-Wisc.). He was using the
line back in 1999:

-----
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, May 17, 1999, p. 6 (Nexis) Petri has a
"Poisoned Pen Corner," which features nasty letters people have sent to
him.
"Many people think congressmen are all fat heads, and the fat has melted
and clogged their ears," he says in an introduction.
"Others say their representatives were sent to Washington to clean up
the national cesspool -- but mistook the cesspool for a hot tub and
jumped right in."
-----

Even earlier, from black conservative Bob Woodson:

-----
Austin American-Statesman, Aug 13, 1996, p. A9 (Factiva) He [sc. Bob
Woodson] also says that the new GOP lawmakers quickly became "infatuated
with the perks of office. They found that the cesspool they'd been
elected to clean up could become a hot tub."
-----

--Ben Zimmer

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org