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Tuesday, December 20, 2005

My Favorite Bush Quote of the Day

Posted by on December 20 at 15:35 PM

“We’re at war, and we must protect America’s secrets.”

This was Bush threatening to go after whoever/whomever leaked the domestic spying program.

That’s rich. Bush is lecturing about protecting America’s secrets while he’s illegally spying on American citizens.


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Are we at war? Has the congress given the president the authority to declare war? And if so, on whom?

Not to mention that a number of folks in his cabinet are currently under investigation/already indicted for revealing one of "America's secrets." What a hypocritical sack of shit

Yeah, the irony of Bush getting upset about leaking confidential info is off-the-charts.

"Whoever." It's the subject of a clause. The clause as a whole is the object of "to go after."

Use of "who" in both subjective and objective roles is long since widely accepted, and it sounds a lot smarter than using "whom" incorrectly.

Surprised Amy Kate hasn't beat me to this. =)

I asked Amy Kate this very question before posting.
Looks like she gave me bad advice. Amy Kate?

Lostboy is right (but I disagree with his advice).

Josh, I'm confused as to why both "whoever" and "whomever" are there. You asked about two constructions. In this situation, I advised "whoever," didn't I?

The "whoever" is the subject of the clause "whoever leaked..." and therefore gets subjective (rather than objective) treatment. The entire clause is the object.

I remember it like this: if "he/she" or "they" could replace "whoever," go with "whoever"; if "him/her" or "them" works better, it's "whomever."

Stranger style definitely favors using "whom" when it's proper to (we haven't dropped that distinction).

Yay! The word from Amy Kate. =D

My advice stems from dealing with people who like to use "whom" to sound educated or businesslike but who wouldn't know the difference between subjective and objective if it was explained in a PowerPoint slide.  It'll be my pleasure to see "whom" in the Stranger or anywhere else where its use is understood.

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