Presendential speechifying

Last week, in what must be the earliest ever attempt to drive me crazy with pre-presidential political campaigning, a number of Democrats got on stage to insult each other, but mostly insulted Bush. Which is about as sporting as lawyer hunting with Cheney. The content was mostly as expected, but that wasn't what got me thinking.

During the debate, one of the candidates - Edwards, who is one of my people, being from the South - quipped "High-falutin' language is not enough'.

High-falutin. I can't remember the last time I heard about someone "low-falutin". Or "Middle-of-the-road-falutin". It's always "High". And if that's the case, why bother? Why not just "falutin"? How does one falute, anyway? Where do you pick up this skill? Clearly, it must come from the East Coast boarding schools that Hilary and Obama went to while Edwards walked barefoot in the snow-covered broken glass.

Nowhere can I find the origin of this word. Some sources say it might be a derivation of "to flute". But why high-fluting would be associated with fancy, obstructive talk, I'm not clear. Other sources blame it on the Dutch. For the word verlooten, meaning 'stilted'. And while I'm all for blaming more things on the Dutch (because in Europe-land, it's a well-concealed fact that the Dutch are behind only the Beligans in general skullduggery and shenanigans), there weren't enough Dutch settlers amongst my people to infuse that word in the general lexicon. (Because we were aware of the skullduggery. Seriously. Watch the Dutch. And their wooden shoes).

It is a mystery.

Edwards went on to accuse his co-candidates of being hoity-toity rackin-frackin varmits, and encouraged people to vote for him, because he was the meanest, toughest, rip-roaringest hombre what ever packed a six shooter.