|
|
Reader question:
What is a lap dog, as in "you're just his lap dog"?
My comments:
A lap dog is a dog, a small pet dog, small enough to sit on its owner's
lap.
And petted enough, of course, to be allowed to do so. The lap dog is docile
and obedient. In other words it doesn't snarl at its master, let alone bite.
That's lap dog as a dog, and a good dog it is too.
Lap dog can be a person, someone who's totally subservient to his master.
The lap dog as a person, however, carries derogative connotations. To label a
person a lap dog is similar to calling them a poodle (another docile dog with
curly hair – if you're somebody's poodle, you always do what the other person
tells you to do), a lackey (a manservant who follows his master around, doing
what he's told) or, in Mao's terminology, a running dog (The Great Chairman used
to call his enemies "the running dog of imperialism").
Or a yes man (who answers "yes" to every command).
Or Sancho Panza, if you really want to sound hip and up to date. That's
what commentators have been calling Sarah Palin, the running mate of John McCain
for the White House. George Will first mocked Palin as McCain's "female Sancho
Panza" (See example below). It stuck like a lipstick (see my previous column
Lipstick on the Campaign Trail, September 23) and the term has since been picked
up by commentators everywhere. Sancho Panza is Don Quixote's servant, body guard
and apprentice.
Don Quixote?
Ah well, never mind. Here I'll give one recent media example of each and
every term, except the running dog (no-one seems to be using the term any more -
let's face it, nobody will put it better than The Great Helmsman did ^-^).
1. lap dog:
This week, the media continued to bend over backwards to repeat whatever
narrative McCain wants them to. He even refurnished his airplane with a VIP
section for the most obedient reporters.
Top McCain aide Mark Salter said "'only the good reporters' would get to
sit in the specially-configured section for interviews. 'You'll have to earn
it,' he said." So how can these reporters "earn" a seat? Never challenge the
Senator.
- The Lap Dog Express, dailykos.com, July 05, 2008.
2. poodle:
To be or not to be a poodle. That was the question and U.S. President
George W Bush answered that Britain's Tony Blair was a faithful friend, but
nobody's pet.
"The prime minister is sometimes, perhaps unfairly, characterized in
Britain as your poodle," began the questioner at a joint appearance by the two
leaders Friday at the White House. "I was wondering if that's the way you may
see your relationship?"
Blair broke in: "Don't answer 'yes' to that question," he mockingly
admonished Bush, prompting laughter.
However, the U.S. leader was visibly not amused by the question.
Glowering, Bush responded that Blair was a strong, capable leader who "made
a decision because he wanted to do a duty to secure the people of Great
Britain."
- Bush says Blair isn't his poodle, Japantoday.com, November 13, 2004.
3. lackey:
If one looks in depth into McCain's statement on foreign affairs, they
reveal how buffoonish he truly is. He has often confused Sunni Muslims with
Shi'ite Muslims and has had to be reminded of the differences not once but
several times by his lackey Joe Lieberman. He's had to be told that Iran is not
training future members of Al Qaeda.
- John McCain: A Buffoon, elm.washcoll.edu, October 3, 2008.
4. yes man:
It might be easier to have a yes-man or -woman as vice president, but with
so much at stake for the country and the world, such a person might allow a
troublesome decision to go unchallenged.
- Picking vice president is a matter of ethics, StarTribune.com, August 1,
2008.
5. Sancho Panza:
In the closing days of his 10-year quest for the presidency, McCain finds
it galling that Barack Obama is winning the first serious campaign he has ever
run against a Republican. Before Tuesday night's uneventful event, gall was
fueling what might be the McCain-Palin campaign's closing argument. It is less
that Obama has bad ideas than that Obama is a bad person.
This, McCain and his female Sancho Panza say, is demonstrated by bad
associations Obama had in Chicago, such as with William Ayers, the unrepentant
terrorist. But the McCain-Palin charges have come just as the Obama campaign is
benefiting from a mass mailing it is not paying for. Many millions of American
households are gingerly opening envelopes containing reports of the
third-quarter losses in their 401(k) and other retirement accounts -- telling
each household its portion of the nearly $2 trillion that Americans' accounts
have recently shed. In this context, the McCain-Palin campaign's attempt to get
Americans to focus on Obama's Chicago associations seem surreal -- or, as a
British politician once said about criticism he was receiving, "like being
savaged by a dead sheep."
- George F. Will: For McCain, what if this is as good as it gets?
StarTribune.com, October 8, 2008. |
|
发表于 2016-7-9 23:54:05