Chief Justice Roberts lifts 'inartful' to new heights
Inartful: The polite political word for 鈥渄umb,鈥� especially when an elected official and/or his or her spokespeople grope to explain something they said earlier.
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts鈥檚 opinion in the King v. Burwell case essentially preserving the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) shed new light on the art of 鈥渋nartful.鈥� that the original law 鈥渃ontains more than a few examples of inartful drafting,鈥� which he and five other justices said necessitated the court to step in and uphold the creation of the state exchanges that the law established.
But 鈥渋nartful鈥� 鈥� along with its linguistic cousins 鈥渃ounterproductive鈥� and 鈥淚 misspoke鈥� 鈥� has long been a fixture in politics. The late language expert William Safire in 1985 that 鈥渁rtful鈥� originally meant 鈥渁droit,鈥� then evolved into being synonymous with crafty or wily. 鈥淭hus, with artful meaning 鈥榳ily,鈥� inartful would mean 鈥榥ot wily鈥� and would be a compliment,鈥� Mr. Safire wrote. However, to use it as another way of saying 鈥淚 goofed鈥� 鈥� as New York Gov. Mario Cuomo did at the time 鈥� 鈥渕akes no sense,鈥� Safire added. 鈥淒epending on his specific intent, he could have chosen insensitive, cruel, thoughtless or even impolitic.鈥�
In 2008, Ben Smith, then of Politico, that it 鈥渋s becoming a bit of a favorite campaign word鈥� after Barack Obama refused to rebuke Gen. Wesley Clark for saying that Arizona GOP Sen. John McCain鈥檚 military experience wasn鈥檛 relevant to the presidency. And conservatives for being inartful in 2014 when the president said 鈥渨e don鈥檛 have a strategy yet鈥� for dealing with Islamic militants.
More recently, Republican Scott Walker鈥檚 evasion of a British reporter鈥檚 question about whether he believed in evolution from Washington Post opinion columnist Richard Cohen鈥檚 castigation of the Wisconsin governor: 鈥淲alker鈥檚 Inartful Dodge in London.鈥� Another Republican, Ben Carson, in walking back an earlier assertion endorsing the ownership of semi-automatic weapons for people who live 鈥渙ut in the country somewhere by yourself,鈥� 鈥減erhaps a little inartful.鈥�
Hillary Clinton also turned to the word she caused last year when she lamented that she and her husband were 鈥渄ead broke鈥� upon leaving the White House in 2001. 鈥淚 shouldn鈥檛 have said the five or so words that I said, but my inartful use of those few words doesn鈥檛 change who I am, what I鈥檝e stood for my entire life, what I stand for today,鈥� Mrs. Clinton told PBS.
鈥泪苍补谤迟蹿耻濒鈥� in congressional debates over the last two decades, according to the Sunlight Foundation鈥檚 ever-helpful CapitolWords.org. Democrats have deployed it slightly more often than Republicans.
Chuck McCutcheon and David Mark write their "Speaking Politics" blog exclusively for Politics Voices.
