Usage
Reporting in 1975 on the prospect of a reexamination of the Warren Commission's findings concerning the assassination of John F. Kennedy, newspaper journalist Nicholas M. Horrock wrote:
In the White House of Richard M. Nixon, it was said that Watergate would become serious only if it 'got outside the Washington Beltway', if the depths of the disgrace were understood by the American people. In 1974, the truth of Watergate flooded the country, and the Nixon presidency ended.It can be said that the myriad doubts about the Warren Commission's findings in the death of President Kennedy represent a reverse situation. The doubts would never be taken seriously until they were inside the Beltway, in the halls of Congress, the courts and the White House. —Nicholas M. Horrock, (October 12, 1975) The New York Times: p. 230.
In the United Kingdom, the similar idiom "Westminster Bubble" (or, more recently, "Westminster village") is a metaphor for the willful self-isolation of policymakers. Westminster is the seat of government in The United Kingdom.
Read more about this topic: Inside The Beltway
Famous quotes containing the word usage:
“I am using it [the word ‘perceive’] here in such a way that to say of an object that it is perceived does not entail saying that it exists in any sense at all. And this is a perfectly correct and familiar usage of the word.”
—A.J. (Alfred Jules)
“...Often the accurate answer to a usage question begins, “It depends.” And what it depends on most often is where you are, who you are, who your listeners or readers are, and what your purpose in speaking or writing is.”
—Kenneth G. Wilson (b. 1923)
“Pythagoras, Locke, Socrates—but pages
Might be filled up, as vainly as before,
With the sad usage of all sorts of sages,
Who in his life-time, each was deemed a bore!
The loftiest minds outrun their tardy ages.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)