“Forty-seven-percent-gate”?

[Cache – #88]

“Forty-seven-percent-gate”? It doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. But it’s still remarkable that in a culture that adds “-gate” to the name of every scandal major and minor, Mitt Romney’s writing-off of essentially half the American electorate hasn’t been immortalized in the same fashion. Instead, the incident is being referred to as simply “the 47-percent remark” or something similar – and now of course Romney is yammering on about how he’ll be president of “the 100 percent.” To which one must ask: “are you implying that you actually had a choice in the matter?”

All of which reminds, in this political season, of the many “gates” in years past:

Nipplegate: aka the Super Bowl wardrobe malfunction (also known as Boobgate)

Monicagate: also known as Lewinskygate, Tailgate, Sexgate and Zippergate (here’s the classic video of Bill Clinton’s denial):

Irangate: aka the Iran-Contra affair (which I recall as the biggest scandal of my formative years)

Tunagate: the 1985 tainted tuna scandal that resulted in the resignation of Fisheries Minister John Fraser

Weinergate: the unfortunate sexting choices made by the unfortunately-named U.S. Congressman Anthony Weiner (see here for the hilarious headlines that ran during the affair)