Minimum high regard
Minimum high regard is both a legal procedural, and a euphemistically disparaging, term of art, in the U. S. Senate.[1][2][3] Its initial sense in that body is in a rule about speech among members, intended to ensure "comity" and mutual politeness in statements by them as part of formal sessions of that body. Nevertheless, it has been used with lawyerly but also lawyerish and thereby ironic insinuation as a term of disparagement[citation needed], in effect flouting that very rule. The irony reflects the arguably ambiguous intent of "minimum", since tone or context easily connote, the presumably intended meaning of
- "no less than what is obviously required",
but the ironic and significantly sarcastic,
- "only to the insignificant degree, which the teethless rule pretends to be remotely capable of enforcing".
References
[edit]- ^ Mark, David; Mccutcheon, Chuck. "How to Talk Like a Politician". POLITICO Magazine.
- ^ "Political press". Los Angeles Times. February 22, 2004.
- ^ "Wilson's Outburst Did Dishonor to All of Congress". Roll Call. 15 September 2009.