George W. Bush's verbal faux pas are legendary. It is not surprising that his gaffes would continue after (finally) leaving office, and in his very first speech in front of a friendly audience in Alberta, Canada, he lives up down to those expectations.
Verbal gaffes come in many forms, and throughout his public life, Mr Bush has demonstrated a mastery of them all. "Bushisms" are legion, and per this AP news story, Mr Bush continues his assault on our language. This time, his weapon of choice is a classic malapropism:
Bush said that he doesn't know what he will do in the long term but that he will write a book ... "so when the history of this administration is written at least there's an authoritarian voice saying exactly what happened," Bush said [emphasis added].
Even though the correct word is "authoritative," I find Mr Bush's word choice somehow very suitable for a man who joked about dictatorship while president. In fact, I think this qualifies not just as a malapropism, but also as a Freudian slip.
Although dictatorship was not among the subjects of Mr Bush's attempts at humor in Canada, the article relates that
Bush was also full of jokes during his appearance. He joked that he would do more speeches to pay for his new house in Dallas.
"I actually paid for a house last fall. I think I'm the only American to have bought a house in the fall of 2008," he quipped.
Tone-deaf to the troubles which he was in such large measure responsible for visiting upon ordinary Americans — as the French say, quoi de neuf ("what else is new?"). Not quite as big a laugh-getter as "looking for WMDs" at the Correspondents' Dinner, but in the same category of venally tasteless and outrageously conscience-free.
Although Bush was speaking to a friendly audience — again, quoi de neuf — his speech was protested by reality-based Canadians:
About 200 protested outside the event; four of them were arrested. Some protesters threw shoes at an effigy of Bush....
"He shouldn't be able to go anywhere in the world and just present himself as a private citizen," protest organizer Peggy Askin said. "We do not have any use for bringing war criminals into this country. It's an affront."
That Bush would be paid to speak at all (apart from being compelled to testify in a U.S. court or in The Hague, I mean), is not just "an affront," it's a travesty and a mockery of decency and justice. And to Mr Bush's many infinitely weightier crimes, I add this (slightly paraphrasing My Fair Lady's Henry Higgins):
By rights [he] should be taken out and hung
For the cold-blooded murder of the English tongue.