[Mr. Bird]

Certainly the ammoniac partisan atmosphere created by then Speaker Newt Gingrich and the Republican Congress contributed.

Gratuitous and indefensible. No editor should let a line like that be slipped in without some sort of expansion on the thought. Is this author writing any columns about the "ammoniac partisan atmosphere" currently being created by Daschle and Co.?

[Hemingway's Ghost]

No editor should let a line like that be slipped in without some sort of expansion on the thought.

Lehigh isn't usually that sloppy. His editor probably had him insert the line into the piece because of standing Globe editorial policy.

[dodger]

Gratuitous and indefensible. No editor should let a line like that be slipped in without some sort of expansion on the thought.

True, true. Moreover, a competent editor would have noted it should read 'ammoniacal' ....