"pardon this rough, but effective, language"

Remember when Candidate W2000 called NYT reporter Adam Clymer a "major-league asshole" ("big time, big time") in front of an open mic? And before that, in 1988, GWB revealing what he and Poppa GHWB liked to talk about, when not discussing de Toqueville or Machiavelli? Distasteful, but also hard to believe, in these current self-righteous days of the "language" mafia.

Enter Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Mo, who calls constituent an quote asshole unquote in writing... and then, disappointingly, goes all Mission Impossible and disavows all knowledge of how that nasty (only alluded to by AP -"The letter ended with a profane, seven-letter insult beginning with the letter a - "i think you're an... ") crept into her letter. Come on, Jo Ann, goddamnit, have some cojones.

But that brings me to this result of a google news search on asshole . Please, my readers - if any of you are sober today (Lily, can you help me out?) - can someone explain the anatomical discrepancy here?

Berlusconi calls 'asshole' those who don't vote for him
04/05/2006
He used the word "coglioni" - slang for "testicles" - an insult used to belittle people's intelligence. It is common in colloquial Italian but virtually unheard of in political speeches.

Silvio Berlusconi came under fire from Italy's opposition parties on Tuesday after using an offensive term to describe anyone planning to vote for his rival in upcoming elections.

Berlusconi confidently said he was certain he would win re-election on
April 9-10.

"You know why I'm sure?" Berlusconi asked an association of Italian retailers. "Because I have too much respect for the intelligence of Italians to
believe that there are so many 'coglioni' around to vote against their best interest," he said.

The word "coglioni" - slang for "testicles" - is an insult used to belittle people's intelligence. It is common in colloquial Italian but virtually unheard of in political speeches. "Pardon this rough, but effective language," the premier added.

The remark added to an already bitter campaign, hours after a feisty TV debate with centre-left leader Romano Prodi. Prodi said in a statement that the comments had sparked "justifiable indignation".

Berlusconi has lost his popularity recently, largely due to the country's stagnant economy. He was trailing in opinion polls published until late last month, and performed poorly in the first televised face-off compared to the soft-spoken but upbeat Prodi.

On Monday night both leaders traded barbs with sometimes insulting comments.


Look, I know they're Italian, but still balls are balls. And assholes are something else.

* * * *

All of this political asshole talk of course reminds me of Richard Nixon. Not only because he was an asshole, but also because of his referring to Pierre Elliot Trudeau, then PM of Canada, as an "asshole" on one of his home [read: Oval Office] recordings . (To which Trudeau famously replied, "I've been called worse things by better people.") This all came to light only when the transcripts of the tapes were released, years after Watergate, and of course no mainstream newspaper or broadcaster dared utter the offending word then either - except for WBAI radio here in NY (famous of course for the George Carlin 7-dirty-words-FCC confrontation) - where the news anchor reporting the story brazenly said on the air that Richard Nixon had called Pierre Trudeau (and I quote this exactly): "an quote asshole unquote". It was a great day in radio.