The Double-Speaker strikes again

The excellent website SourceWatch provides a very helpful etymology of the term “doublespeak.” The site explains how the word has been inaccurately (if understandably) attributed to the great George Orwell and provides several helpful examples – terms like “negative patient care outcomes” (i.e. death) and “non-core promise” (i.e. a lie). Today the leader of the North Carolina House, Double-Speaker Thom Tillis provided some new grist for the SourceWatch mill.

Tillis’ entry: “compromise.” At a press conference at the General Assembly (you can watch the entire thing here courtesy of WRAL), Tillis plumbed new depths of deception and disingenuousness when he claimed that Governor Perdue (!) was the person holding 37,000 unemployed workers hostage because of her unwillingness to “compromise” with Republicans over their attempt to inject a wholly unrelated topic into the unemployment debate – namely the 2012 budget.

For Tillis, “compromise” means “surrender to right-wing bullying.” It was truly a virtuoso performance in intentional mendacity. You almost had the impression at times that the guy actually believed what he was saying.

In short, the Double-Speaker delivered a heaping helping of what the good folks at SourceWatch would call biosolids.