"soft on Communism"

[Jonathan Lighter]

There was also that time in 1968 when Gov. Agnew called the Johnson
administration - Hubert Humphrey in particular - "squishy soft" on crime,
Communism, Vietnam, etc.

JL

On Mon, Oct 3, 2011 at 1:45 PM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "soft on Communism"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I believe a version of the phrase was first used by Senator Robert A.
> Taft in his statement of February 21, 1947, opposing the appointment
> of David E. Lilienthal as head of the Atomic Energy Commission.
>
> In the first paragraph he writes,, "I believe he is temperamentally
> unfitted to head any important executive agency in a democratic
> government and too 'soft' on issues connected with communism and
> Soviet Russia."
>
> Later, he writes, "Like the group of which he was a part, Mr.
> Lilienthal was soft on the subject of communism."
>
> The NYTimes has the text here:
>
> http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F20E11F63C5E17738DDDAB0A94DA405B8788F1D3
>
> DanG
>
>
>
> On Mon, Oct 3, 2011 at 12:41 PM, Jonathan Lighter
> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      "soft on Communism"
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Not in any OED evidence, so far as I can tell.
> >
> > 1947 Paul Mallon in  _Waterloo [Ia.] Daily Courier_ (Apr. 14) 4
> > [NewspaperArchive]: Lilienthal was charged by Senator McKellar of being
> soft
> > on Communism.
> >
> > There's a hiatus of more than a year and a half, then a full flowering in
> > January, 1949.
> >
> > JL
> >
> > --
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
> >
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