"Severely Conservative"?
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney speaks during an address to the 39th Conservative Political Action Committee February 10, 2012 (MANDEL NGAN / AFP / Getty Images)
I was racking my brains trying to remember what Mitt Romney's oddly phrased boast that he was "severely conservative" as governor of Massachusetts reminded me of.
Then it hit me: In Evelyn Waugh's Black Mischief, an English delegation from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals visits the African nation of Azania. The Azanian hosts welcome the delegation with a banquet, but do not fully grasp the message. One proposes a toast:
Ladies and gentlemen, we must be Modern, we must be refined in our Cruelty to Animals. That is the message brought to us by our guests this evening.
One might even say: severe.
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David Frum
David Frum is a contributing editor at Newsweek and The Daily Beast and a CNN contributor. He is the author of seven books, including most recently, his first novel Patriots published in April 2012.
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