Ambrose's Antidote: BATTLE

BATTLE, n. A method of untying with the teeth of a political knot that would not yield to the tongue.

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The fact that he relies on facts -- says things that are not factual -- are going to undermine his campaign.

GWB
4 Mar 2000
Referring to Al Gore. Quoted in the New York Times.

Ambrose's Antidote: BATH

BATH, n. A kind of mystic ceremony substituted for religious worship, with what spiritual efficacy has not been determined.

  The man who taketh a steam bath
  He loseth all the skin he hath,
  And, for he's boiled a brilliant red,
  Thinketh to cleanliness he's wed,
  Forgetting that his lungs he's soiling
  With dirty vapors of the boiling.

Richard Gwow

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I think we ought to have high -- high standards and set by -- by agencies that rely upon science, not by what may feel good or what sound good.

GWB
15 Jan 2000
From Republican Debate in Des Moines, Iowa.

Ambrose's Antidote: BASTINADO

BASTINADO, n. The act of walking on wood without exertion.

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Kosovians can move back in.

GWB
9 Apr 1999
Referring to the situation in Kosovo. CNN's Inside Politics.

Ambrose's Antidote: BASILISK

BASILISK, n. The cockatrice. A sort of serpent hatched form the egg of a cock. The basilisk had a bad eye, and its glance was fatal. Many infidels deny this creature's existence, but Semprello Aurator saw and handled one that had been blinded by lightning as a punishment for having fatally gazed on a lady of rank whom Jupiter loved. Juno afterward restored the reptile's sight and hid it in a cave. Nothing is so well attested by the ancients as the existence of the basilisk, but the cocks have stopped laying.

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I knew it might put him in an awkward position that we had a discussion before finality has finally happened in this presidential race.

GWB
2 Dec 2000
Referring to a phone conversation with Louisiana Democratic Senator, John Breaux.

Ambrose's Antidote: BARRACK

BARRACK, n. A house in which soldiers enjoy a portion of that of which it is their business to deprive others.

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But as a result of evil, there's some amazing things that are taking place in America.

GWB
Daytona Beach, Florida.

Ambrose's Antidote: BAROMETER

BAROMETER, n. An ingenious instrument which indicates what kind of weather we are having.

Editor's note: now we have the weather channel and weather.com.

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The senate needs to leave enough money in the proposed budget to not only reduce all marginal rates, but to eliminate the death tax, so that people who build up assets are able to transfer them from one generation to the next, regardless of a person's race.

GWB
5 Apr 2001
Washington, D.C.

Ambrose's Antidote: BAPTISM

BAPTISM, n. A sacred rite of such efficacy that he who finds himself in heaven without having undergone it will be unhappy forever. It is performed with water in two ways -- by immersion, or plunging, and by aspersion, or sprinkling.

  But whether the plan of immersion
  Is better than simple aspersion
      Let those immersed
      And those aspersed
  Decide by the Authorized Version,
  And by matching their agues tertian.

G.J.

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As I said in my State of the Union address, liberty is not America's gift to the world. Liberty is God's gift to human -- to the human -- mankind.

GWB
26 Feb 2003
Washington, D.C.