New word comes rolling off the computer

We have been told how President Trump may have referred to certain countries in less than flattering terms during a private bipartisan meeting with certain senators. The president denies this, but then, we have no less a source than the Democrat Dick Durbin.

Durbin, of Illinois, is the Democratic whip, whose job it is to try to make it hard for Republicans, from the president on down to the janitors, to get things done.

Of course, it is true that Republicans have whips, too, so Durbin can’t be blamed because he has a hit-shole job.

Yes, hit-shole. That is a new word, devised to let squeamish editors, such as yours truly, repeat what senators from Illinois say when they are claiming what the president of the United States said.

The word Sen. Durbin used is s---hole, as in “s---hole countries.”

So we have Sen. Durbin actually using the word he says the president said.

So, we know for sure that Durbin said it, because he loves getting up in front of microphones to say it. But others who were in the same room are less positive that the president said it. Some deny the president said it at all. Others aren’t sure what was said. The Republicans tend to defend the president, while the Democrats tend to perhaps agree with Durbin, all of which is expected.

And the president often stumbles over his own tongue, so it isn’t hard to lean toward believing Durbin.

But Durbin is not without a history of making unflattering comparisons. For example, calling U.S. troops Nazis.

In 2005, on the Senate floor, Durbin tearfully apologized for comparing U.S. troops to Nazis, the Soviets army and the Khmer Rouge.

He apologized only when the country began to wonder whether he was as stupid as he sounded.

Durbin reacted to the alleged use of language by the president by saying no other president had ever used such language in the White House before.

But that is not true.

One of the most profane presidents was John F. Kennedy, who unlike Durbin was a Naval hero, and was wont to swear like a sailor. However, he was seldom quoted, because the press covered for him, just as they covered for Barry Goldwater, never a president but a candidate for that office. Sen. Goldwater was known for an inability to speak a whole sentence without swearing, but his salty language was never quoted. Again, the press passed those words by.

President Lyndon Johnson was known for swearing, calling people names and actually yelling profanity in people’s faces.

President Richard Nixon knew how to swear, as the famous Nixon tapes revealed, and at that time, editors used the term (expletive deleted) instead of the profanity with which Nixon would burst forth, when they were publishing transcripts of the Nixon tapes.

Books written about Hillary Clinton reflect her inability to clean up her language when she was angry.

Franklin Roosevelt would often resort to profanity when referring to Hitler.

Harry Truman was well known for his ability to swear and a proclivity for letting it fly.

If you want a president who doesn’t swear, next time vote for the one-time Mormon Bishop Mitt Romney, who was never heard to use profanity. But an opponent, Barack Obama, once called Romney a “bullshitter.”

In any case, if you are the president, and you expect to use profanity, don’t invite that hit-shole Durbin to the meeting, or he might tell on you.