John discusses a news article about congressional taunting that includes examples such as a press release from Democrat Harry Reid saying, “Republicans have shown they couldn’t care less about those who have the least,” and Republican Eric Cantor saying, “Democrats have not displayed the same interest in listening to the American people.”
But to me these don’t sound like taunts. I agree the statements have little content (they’re banging on the familiar stereotypes about leaders of the two parties) but I wouldn’t call them taunts. To me, these lines from Quayle and Palin lines sound more taunt-like, in that they’re just jabs with no content at all.
To translate into schoolyard terms: Reid is saying “You’re a meanie,” and Cantor is saying “You think you’re better than the other kids.”
Quayle and Palin, though, are conversational purists, anti-Grices if you will. Their utterances can roughly be translated in playground-speak to “Nanny nanny boo-boo.”
Dole, Reagan, Udall, etc. were in a different league. They had quips with actual content.