Speech
DeWeese is well known for his idiosyncratic style of speaking and writing, which incorporates an extensive vocabulary, anachronistic usages, and attenuated metaphors. For instance, a 2002 letter by DeWeese to lobbyist Stephen Wojdak regarding Wojdak's hiring of DeWeese's ex-wife, Holly Kinser, began with the following paragraph:
Let's cut to the chase ... you sir, are a liar. The measure of the person in our enterprise is his word. When a man comes to my Capitol Hill enclave and stands beneath that impressive chandelier of gold, looks me in the eye with a gimlet gaze, shakes my hand with a sturdy grip and gives me his word, to me it's axiomatic that the gentleman is telling the truth. You are an abject, ignoble, mendacious knave!
While some take DeWeese's use of language as evidence of his high level of intellect, others complain that his prose is frequently mangled. Others find his linguistic choices pompous. In a 2002 interview with the Allentown Morning Call, DeWeese said regarding his metaphors: "My intelligence is in the middle range, but my enthusiasm is above average."
In 2002, the political website PoliticsPA named him to the list of "Smartest Legislators," saying "His command of the English language leaves most people fumbling for a dictionary, if they can even spell the word. The breadth and depth of his knowledge of history also distinguishes this Democratic Floor Leader. Extremely well rounded and well read, DeWeese is capable of holding an intelligent conversation on just about any topic." In a 2002 PoliticsPA Feature story designating politicians with yearbook superlatives, he was named the "Best Dressed."
Read more about this topic: Bill DeWeese
Famous quotes containing the word speech:
“America—rather, the United States—seems to me to be the Jew among the nations. It is resourceful, adaptable, maligned, envied, feared, imposed upon. It is warm-hearted, overfriendly; quick-witted, lavish, colorful; given to extravagant speech and gestures; its people are travelers and wanderers by nature, moving, shifting, restless; swarming in Fords, in ocean liners; craving entertainment; volatile. The schnuckle among the nations of the world.”
—Edna Ferber (1887–1968)
“Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game. Free speech is life itself.”
—Salman Rushdie (b. 1948)
“And hereby hangs a moral highly applicable to our own trustee-ridden universities, if to nothing else. If we really wanted liberty of speech and thought, we could probably get it—Spain fifty years ago certainly had a longer tradition of despotism than has the United States—but do we want it? In these years we will see.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)