Saddam 'Crawfished,' Bush Says in Verbal Attack

Reuters ^ | September 04, 2002 | Randall Mikkelsen

[Willie Green]

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - After a month's vacation at his Texas ranch, President Bush let loose at Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on Wednesday with a blast of down-home rhetoric.

"For 11 long years Saddam Hussein has sidestepped, crawfished, wheedled out of any agreement that he had made," Bush told reporters on Wednesday, launching a new verb if not a military strike at Iraq.

Back in Washington after spending August in Texas, Bush was outlining plans to seek the support of Congress and the United Nations for action against Saddam.

"I'm going to call upon the world to recognize that he is stiffing the world," Bush said at a meeting on Iraq with congressional leaders.

Bush's rhetorical blast undoubtedly led to head-scratching in foreign capitals, where he is trying to make his case clear for ousting Saddam.

"Crawfished" refers to the freshwater crustacean -- also known as a crayfish, crawdad or mudbug -- and its knack for scurrying into a hole when discovered.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, asked about the term, rattled off a list of previous Iraqi commitments to disarm.

"This is what Saddam Hussein has tried his best to slither out of, as the president put it, 'to crawfish out of,"' Fleischer said.

"Wheedle" means to entice using flattery or guile.

"Stiffing" means shortchanging, or failing to pay what one owes. Waiters will complain of being stiffed by a diner who leaves a paltry tip.

The president, who has long cloaked his Connecticut Yankee roots with the plain-speaking style of his adoptive Texas, often turns to vivid, folksy language, sometimes of his own invention, when he gets feisty and wants to rally opposition.

In 2001 he said he wanted Islamic militant Osama bin Laden "dead or alive," in the style of an Old West wanted poster. He has denounced the Sept. 11 attackers as "evildoers," and labeled Iraq, Iran and North Korea as part of an "axis of evil."

[dennisw]

GWBUsh was born in New Haven but grew up in Texas.

[maica]

*"Maybe I'm imagining it, but to me this whole article feels like a cheap shot at the president. "*


Everything with a Reuters byline can be considered to have an antiBush bias.

[galt-jw]

gumbo. maybe carville will be there.

[VaBthang4]

"After a month's vacation at his Texas ranch"

Why is every friggin news story or show leading with this sentence?

Am I supposed to be bitter that he left the capitol for a Month?

Oi...Liberals. They cant help but hate.

[Ditter]

Crabs often move sideways, crawfish move mostly backwards.

[VaBthang4]

"Crawdads"

Yep, I grew up in Indiana and that is what we called them.

[alnick]

Me too. I'm from New Orleans, so it's kind of a common expression down here.

[Wild Irish Rogue]

CRAWFISH TAILMEAT (1lb) - $10.95 - Frozen, If you like crawfish but are to busy to clean them, then this is for you. Use in your favorite Cajun or shrimp recipe. PACKED ONE (1LB) BAG

LANGOSTINO MEAT, 5 LB BAG - $68.95 - An easy item to work with, take out what you need, cleaned & ready to use. Relative to the lobster and the meat looks like a mini lobster tail. Taste and texture of shrimp. Great in sauce, soup and pasta. PACKED ONE (5 LB.) BAG.

President Bush should have used the term "Langostinoed" or "Lobstered" and the 3 martini lunch media would have gotten it. They only understand the high dollar menu items.

[Sabertooth]

The forty million or so that I have seen over 51 years in the streams of Georgia shot straight backwards when molested like many a salt-water crustacean.

You are correct. Shrimp, lobster, and crawfish escape by kicking their tail underneath their bodies and shooting backwards. Best way to catch them is set up one net behind them, and herd them toward it with another.

Of course, you probably figured that out after the first 10 million or so.

[McLynnan]

You gotta love W. I am married to the King of Texas lingo and have heard him say "somebody tried to crawfish out of a deal" more times than I count. W is a ridin' high maverick who's got the press nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. It's a pleasant change from Bubba who was plug ugly, all hat and no cattle, dumb as a box of rocks, crooked as a dog's hind leg, greasy as fried lard, and looks like he fell on his face in the sticker field and the cows ran over him. How's that for some Texas talk : )

[Yardstick]

I'd agree with that. This article strikes me as being particularly weasely and snide.

[crystalk]

The term "crawfish" is used in coastal Florida at times to mean the tropical or spiny Lobster, a saltwater creature almost as large as an average Maine lobster [not those monsters one sometimes sees up there] but with no claws.

The creature called a crawfish [or crawdad] in fresh water is usually only about 3 to 5 inches long at the largest, it must take many, many to make a meal.

I wonder if the false defense made by this creature, throwing up its claws and trying to look big, as it scuttles backwards into a hole, is what the President was alluding to.

[Yardstick]

Yes, you should be angry that Bush left the capitol for a month, and if you're a southerner you should be angry that the President "cloaks his Connecticut Yankee roots" in folksy lingo.

This article is brimming with little oblique barbs.

[alnick]

This is the posture that shows where the term "crawfishing" comes from.
Picture the crawfish walking backwards.

[Crispy]

Crawdads sure are yummy too. Boil them in water and dip the tails and claws into melted butter. Mmmmm Mmmmm.

[Freee-dame]

I caught that too about he Connecticut Yankee - BS. George W was 2 when they moved to Texas. Sheesh. <P.and I think he had lived in graduate student housing, not exactly the Ritz.

[dsutah]

Wow, you've said a mouthfull! I've heard a few funny comparisons here in Utah. One of them I get a kick out of, and I don't know if it originates from Utah is: "Crazy as a peach-orchard squirrel!".

[3k9pm]

You forgot about the blob being "beat with an ugly stick."
He face looks like a mile of dirt road.
He's buttass ugly.
He should be beat like a rented mule.
He's gettin a little long in the tooth.

[dread78645]

We call em crawdads

I call 'em supper.