thesp

[Bonnie Taylor-Blake]

On Sat, Mar 10, 2012 at 7:50 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:

I know we're some decades since a politician (Nixon, perhaps? Huey
Long?) revealed that his opponent in the campaign was (or had a sister
who was) an admitted thespian.  (I tried googling for it, but I see
too many hits for "admitted thespian" for my patience.)

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This kind of wordplay is often linked to a legendary stump speech said
to have been given in a Florida primary battle between George Smathers
and Claude Pepper in the spring of 1950.  (And 30 years before that,
one Massachusetts politician had formally complained to election
officials that his opponent had exposed him as a sexagenarian.)

http://spokelore.wordpress.com/ (second entry)

-- Bonnie

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