2008年10月11日星期六

clear, condemn, vilify, vilifier

For Karl Rove, a Busy New Career and a ‘Rovian’ Legacy
By MARK LEIBOVICH
Karl Rove has inspired a generation of Republican imitators, Democratic vilifiers and, in this election, a term that has reached full-on political buzzword status: “Rovian.”

For nearly five years, Richard A. Grasso was vilified for the riches he reaped while running the New York Stock Exchange.
But on Tuesday, a court ruled that Mr. Grasso could keep the $139.5 million he was paid.

The FBI has been glorified and vilified. Its agents are admired and scorned, respected and ridiculed. And people have felt this way about them for 100 years. US president Theodore Roosevelt and his attorney general, Charles Bonaparte, created a force of special agents within the Department of Justice, and on this date in 1908, the new recruits reported for duty. At that time, the agency was called the Bureau of Investigation; it was only in 1935 that the "Federal" was added to the name. The new agency included lawyers, detectives, Secret Service agents and accountants who pledged to "protect and defend..."

Quote

"We are a fact-gathering organization only. We don't clear anybody. We don't condemn anybody." — J. Edgar Hoover

這 clear
To free from a legal charge or imputation of guilt; acquit: cleared the suspect of the murder charge.

condemn

(kən-dĕm') pronunciation

tr.v., -demned, -demn·ing, -demns.

To express strong disapproval of: condemned the needless waste of food.
To pronounce judgment against; sentence: condemned the felons to prison.
To judge or declare to be unfit for use or consumption, usually by official order: condemn an old building.
To lend credence to or provide evidence for an adverse judgment against: were condemned by their actions.
Law. To appropriate (property) for public use.

vilify

verb [T] FORMAL
to say or write unpleasant things about someone or something, in order to cause other people to have a bad opinion of them:
He was vilified by the press as a monster of perversity.