PEDALL Award
by sarabeth at 6:00 am on October 10th, 2007 in GeneralToday’s Political Assault on a Living Language (PEDALL) award goes to Fran Townsend:
White House homeland security adviser Fran Townsend, asked whether al Qaeda infiltration efforts were under way, replied: “There’s no question. They’re not only under way, they’re ongoing and have been.”
This is way beyond permissible rhetorical excess, and borders dangerously on Bushism.
The American Heritage Dictionary defines both words as follows:
Underway
1. In motion or operation.
2. Already commenced or initiated; in progress.Ongoing
1. Currently taking place
2. In progress or evolving.
Not only are they perfect synonyms, but by definition something that is ongoing now has been ongoing for some previous length of time.
Frannie, next time just go with “Yes”, please?
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