What’s in a name? Or a label. Sometimes plenty…

You don’t call a Marine a soldier! Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it makes a difference to them. Lots of people (including me) were soldiers, but soldiers are Army. Marines are, well, Marines. Semper Fi!

By the same token, you don’t  butter up your boss by saying that, for a girl, she’s really, smart, capable and steady. You just don’t.

You don’t say the Democrat Party. It’s the Democratic Party. Dropping the “ic” part is considered as much putdown as calling somebody from the Tea Party a Tea Bagger. Close-sounding, but not the same. Just not a good idea.

A Chevy is the nickname for a popular American car, like my 2007. But it’s pronounced “shevee.” Not like Chevy Chase, Maryland, or Chevy Chase the actor.

Government press officers don’t appreciate being called flacks, anymore than newspaper reporters (who often refer to flacks) like being called hacks.

There are some things, words and phrases that can offend, either by accident or design.

Take the word “bureaucrat”.

Please.

Most people know (or think they know) what a bureaucrat is. Or what they mean when they say it. But it is rarely a term of endearment or praise. Like maybe never …

So when House Minority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) tells his colleagues to use the word bureaucrat (very carefully) they should listen. His Maryland congressional district is chock full of federal offices. And the people who work in them. Hoyer has a long history with feds. He’s been in the House leadership (in both minority and majority roles) almost forever. When President Bill Clinton tried to freeze, then hold down federal pay raises, Hoyer rounded up fellow Democrats to get bigger annual raises for feds. Former OPM Director John Berry — now U.S. Ambassador to Australia — worked for Hoyer for many years. He handled federal employee matters, and was instrumental in getting them bigger raises than the White House proposed. Bottom line: Feds don’t have any better, or well-placed, friend in politics.

The National Treasury Employees Union held its annual legislative conference here last week. Hoyer was one of the featured speakers. After calling for less bickering and partisanship in Congress, Government Executive said he brought the house down when he told union delegates “nothing makes me angry like hearing a member on the floor of the House use ‘bureaucrat’ as an epithet.” Which is really about the only way it’s ever used.

Most people know (or think they know) what a bureaucrat is. Or what they mean when they say it. But it is rarely a term of endearment or praise. Like maybe never …

But sometimes a stubborn bureaucrat can be a hero. For instance …

In the 2015 New York Times obituary of Dr. Frances Oldham Kelsey, a former FDA drug reviewer, the B-word was used. But in a heroic sense, to make a point.

Back in 1960, she blocked approval of a drug (popular in Europe and especially Germany) to treat morning sickness. The drug was called Thalidomide and it produced thousands of babies born with abnormally short arms, or legs like flippers. Kelsey was under tremendous pressure — from a powerful drug company and some of her bosses — to clear the drug. She refused. She argued, correctly but with a lot of courage, that its safety hadn’t been proven. Fortunately. It prevented thousands, maybe millions of American women, from access to the drug. President John F. Kennedy later gave her a medal. But at the time she was being so “stubborn” she was called a “petty bureaucrat.” And worse.

Some bureaucrat!!!

Nearly Useless Factiod

By Michael O’Connell

Frank Kent, a writer for the Baltimore Sun, is credited with coining the term “fat cat” to describe “a man of large means and no political experience who having reached middle age, and success in business, and finding no further thrill … of satisfaction in the mere piling up of more millions, develops a yearning for some sort of public honor and is willing to pay for it. The machine has what it seeks, public honor, and he has the money the machine needs.”

Source: Wikipedia

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