Among the most
famous excuses ever given for questionable behavior, ''I
have a wide stance'' must fall somewhere between the
schoolchild's favorite, ''The dog ate my homework,''
and President Clinton's ''I didn't inhale.''
But Sen. Larry
Craig's contention -- made just after his arrest in a
restroom sex sting -- has permeated the public
consciousness, showing up as more than just the punch
line to late-night talk show jokes.
The online Urban
Dictionary defines ''wide stance'' as a euphemism for a
closeted homosexual. David Kurtz of the blog
Talking Points Memo called Craig's wide stance claim ''The
Best Legal Defense of 2007.'' And Beau Jarvis, who
writes about wine, travel, and food on the blogBasic
Juice, notes that the phrase has become less than
innocent and proposes ''cleansing'' it by using it to
describe a well-balanced wine.
Craig uttered the
now-famous phrase after an undercover police officer at
the Minneapolis airport arrested him on June 11, according
to police reports.
Sgt. Dave Karsnia
claimed Craig entered a neighboring stall after peering
at him through a crack in the door, then slid his foot
underneath the stall divider, tapping it several times
before moving it so it touched the officer's foot.
Then, Karsnia said, Craig waved his hand underneath
the divider. Karsnia said he recognized the gestures as a
coded invitation for gay sex.
During
questioning, the senator said he simply has a wide stance
when using the restroom and that the officer must have
seen him reaching to pick up a piece of paper on the
floor, according to the police report.
Craig pleaded
guilty in August to disorderly conduct, then unsuccessfully
tried to withdraw his plea after the incident became public.
Though he initially said he intended to resign, Craig
vowed last week to serve out the last 15 months of his
term.
Will ''wide
stance'' last as long in popular usage?
''You search the
blogosphere or even newspapers and you'll find a lot of
references to it,'' said Grant Barrett, cohost of the
nationwide public radio show A Way With Words
and author of several slang dictionaries. ''People are
toying with the words, seeing how it feels on the
keyboard.''
Craig's office
declined to comment.
The question
about any new slang is whether it will last five or 10
years, Barrett said.
''How can we not
mention Watergate and the -gate suffix? That's the
single most successful new political word ever,'' Barrett
said. ''Over time, the use makes the original meaning
become diminished -- even curse words, with use, their
value diminishes and they become ordinary.''
So far, about six
weeks after the scandal broke, the slang shows no sign
of slowing down. The October 8 edition of The New
Yorker magazine featured an illustration by Barry Blitt
called ''Narrow Stance,'' showing Iran president
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sitting in a men's room, looking
down at another man's foot thrust underneath the stall
divider.
In an October 6
Saturday Night Live skit, comedian Amy
Poehler remarked, ''You do have a wide stance,'' as the
punch line of a series of jokes about Craig. Late-night talk
show hosts Jay Leno, David Letterman, and others have
also lampooned the senator's stance.
Still, another
new slang term seems to be outpacing ''wide stance'' in
the national lexicon, Barrett said. Unfortunately for Craig,
it also stems from his scandal.
''Are you
tracking the term 'toe-tapper?' That's gotten more traction
than 'wide stance' so far,'' Barrett said. ''They both have
too much cachet. They're political, social, new,
slangy, and a little naughty.''
Both phrases will
likely make Barrett's short list of nominations for the
most significant new word of 2007, as voted on by the
American Dialect Society, he said.
''It's a
whimsical vote that we do each year,'' said Barrett, who is
a vice president for the society.
So what makes a
new phrase last? It has to be useful, Barrett said, and
it has to be able to stand alone, without a reference to its
origin.
''There's a lot
of political slang that hasn't lasted,'' he said. ''The
test will be when the story's old hat and then we'll know
for sure.'' (Rebecca Boone, AP)
