Opinion | My Weekly "Best Turn-of-Phrase Award"

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Best Turn-of-Phrase Award

©2019 Vernon Miles Kerr, vernonmileskerr.com

Good rhetoric sometimes makes a point with humor, sometimes with cleverness, sometimes with surprise.  When a rhetorical turn-of-phrase hits all three with one fell swoop, it deserves an award.  Here is this week’s VernonMilesKerr.com award for Best Turn-of-Phrase:

David A. Graham, writing in The Atlantic

"Earlier this week, White House Counsel Pat Cipollone sent a lengthy rant _[the "obstruction letter"]_ to House Democrats, announcing that the administration would refuse to cooperate with the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump...On Friday, Marie Yovanovitch, the former ambassador to Ukraine who was recalled earlier this year, is giving a transcribed interview behind closed doors over State Department objections. Also on Friday, Gordon Sondland, Trump’s ambassador to the European Union, signaled he would testify as well... **Suddenly the obstruction letter is looking a bit more like a Maginot letter: imposing in theory, impotent in practice." **(emphasis mine)