The Case of the Vanishing Accent

When I lived abroad, there was this cat who was born in England, but had grown up in America. So he didn't have any accent (or if you prefer

Montana governor Brian Schweitzer was in Washington this week to meet with Bush. He and other governors were expressing their opposition to a multi-billion dollar cut(!) in Medicare. What did he have to say about the prez? On yesterday's Morning Sedition, the following:

". . .[Bush] a guy that was transplanted from the northeast to Texas, and he brings that drawl up. I've noticed that when you're in Washington, DC, he speaks pretty much like folks around Washington, DC. But as soon as he gets out of this town, out of the drawer comes that Texas drawl."

Studied isn't a word that I would have associated with The Notorious W, but now it's appropriate in the negative sense. Here's my own contribution to the argument-- although every single sound bite of his European tour featured him saying "NEW-kyoo-lur," he was actually pronouncing Iraq in the correct way-- "ee-ROCK." He even had the accent on the correct syllable. Let the record show that he's at least intelligent enough to follow his handlers' orders when they tell him how to pronounce things. I'm guessing that focus groups applaud the new-kyoo-lur line as don't-take-no-shit machismo, but they couldn't care less how you pronounce the name of "some pissant desert run by a bunch of ragheads." Which is one reason I hate them.

Follow the above link to see how a Montana Democrat handles the phony-baloney in chief. Here's a hint: it isn't by being a nancy-boy. Are you listening, Lieberman? Schweitzer pronounces Iraq correctly, too, in case anyone cares....