mountebankery

[Victor Steinbok]

Nothing new or extraordinary here, but this just seems to be one of
those words that makes a comeback once in a decade, particularly when
one wants to sound literate.

http://www.nationalreview.com/blogs/print/300432
> That Republicans have let Democrats get away with this mountebankery
> is a symptom of their political fecklessness, and in letting them get
> away with it the GOP has allowed itself to be cut off rhetorically
> from a pantheon of Republican political heroes, from Abraham Lincoln
> and Frederick Douglass to Susan B. Anthony, who represent an
> expression of conservative ideals as true and relevant today as it was
> in the 19th century.

Quacks and snake oil vendors were not available for comment.

     VS-)

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