you have to love him

I was reminded of this when listening to NPR this morning, a story about William Safire as speechwriter for Spiro Agnew.  Agnew, like "W" and Dan Quayle, furnished us with much to ponder about elected officials--
My favorite (and my father's, who would have been really amused by Quayle and W, as well as discouraged and frustrated), is the nattering nabobs of negativism.


Agnew was known for his scathing criticisms of political opponents, especially journalists and anti-war activists. He attacked his adversaries with relish, hurling unusual, often alliterative epithets—some of which were coined by White House speechwriters William Safire and Pat Buchanan—including "pusillanimous pussyfooters", "nattering nabobs of negativism" (written by Safire), and "hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history".[7] He once described a group of opponents as "an effete corps of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as intellectuals."