Idiom: throwing (shoving) under the bus [political sacrifice or removal] (probably 1985)

[Garson O'Toole]

Stephen Goranson very kindly checked the 1985 (or 1984) citation for
"shove under the bus" on paper at the Perkins Library (any errors in
the following are mine).

Book Title: The Virginia papers on the Presidency [serial].
Publisher: Washington : University Press of America, [1979-
Paper: "Presidential Nominations: A British Perspective" by Dennis
Kavanagh (pp. 51-71)
Description: Papers "presented at The Miller Center Forums, 1984 Part
IV" but no exact date given.
Book copyright: 1985.
Volume: 19
Quotation Page: 56-57

Excerpt:
In 1975 the party was stuck with a leader under whom it couldn't win
an election. But there was no way of getting rid of him. All that had
been achieved in 1965 was the introduction of a scheme for electing
the party leader, but no procedure for the re-election of the leader.
So they were stuck with him unless you could shove him under the bus.

http://books.google.com/books?id=1hyHAAAAMAAJ&q=shove#search_anchor

Charles C Doyle wrote:
> But what exactly is the image in the expression "throw under
> the bus"?  Do we envision the one to be thrown as riding on
> the bus (presumably, then, in the very front), or standing beside
> the street? On the basis of some of Garson's quotations--and
> the wording of the variant "shove under the bus"--the latter
> seems more probable.  Though it might be different if, say,
> Mrs. Palin were to throw one of her assistants under the bus.

When the phrase was discussed at the Word Detective website in 2008
the following imagery was suggested:

.. to me the phrase conjures up the classic urban nightmare of being
pushed in front of a bus. As a way to quickly and irreversibly get rid
of someone, “throwing” them under a bus in this sense would be the
ideal solution and would satisfy the connotations of sudden, cold
brutality the phrase usually carries.

http://www.word-detective.com/2008/02/12/under-the-bus-to-throw/


The Wikipedia entry contains similar imagery based on its 1990
citation of a story by Charles Bukowski: Septuagenarian Stew (The Life
of a Bum): "character Harry pushed his friend Monk in front of a bus,
and then stole Monk's wallet."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Throw_under_the_bus

By default I think the unfortunate target is standing beside the street unaware.

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