Many of us, in some ways all of us, make our living with language. If we can’t communicate we can’t collaborate to get things done. Language can be precise, descriptive and even colorful.
Maybe no one makes a living more with language than attorneys. The written word and the spoken word are both tools of the trade.
You’d think a Harvard law professor would be great at it…and maybe he is, but he shouldn’t apologize for it.
Lawrence Tribe was interviewed on CNN where he said an impeachment bullet could only be fired once and that democrats, if choosing to use it, should shoot to kill.
He later tweeted an apology saying he wasn’t being literal (as if anyone thought he was) and that his word choice was inexcusable.
He’s wrong. Metaphors are a great part of the language and in this case he was right. Right until he decided to apologize to the idiom idiots who didn’t get it…and never will.