Utah Senator Orrin Hatch found himself embroiled in controversy Monday, but unlike most Washington squabbles, this one was solved with a dictionary.
Last week, Hatch told Politico: “We’re not going back to health care. We’re in tax now. As far as I’m concerned, they shot their wad on health care and that’s the way it is. I’m sick of it.”
Some commentators objected to Hatch’s language on the grounds that he used an impolite euphemism. But the senator was ready with a lesson in etymology, tweeting:
As few of you were alive during the Civil War, here’s a valuable jargon lesson on “wads” and the shooting of them. https://t.co/dOYvcfgImO pic.twitter.com/wk9aaNb3s2
— Senator Hatch Office (@senorrinhatch) August 7, 2017
The definition Hatch intended, based in musketry, implies that Republicans had only one shot, like a musket. Once the “wad” is fired, there’s nothing left to shoot.
While Hatch wasn’t alive during the Civil War either, his age is notable as far as jargon goes: He was born just 69 years after Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House, which is less than his current age of 83. It shouldn’t be surprising that a man of his age would have trouble relating to the idiom’s more common interpretation.
