{"id":4232,"date":"2005-11-23T11:36:33","date_gmt":"2005-11-23T15:36:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/formerlyknownas\/2005\/11\/23\/pit-bull-as-compliment\/"},"modified":"2011-08-05T14:54:23","modified_gmt":"2011-08-05T18:54:23","slug":"pit-bull-as-compliment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2005\/11\/23\/pit-bull-as-compliment\/","title":{"rendered":"” pit bull ” as compliment"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Reacting to a post at <\/FONT>MyShingle<\/FONT><\/EM><\/A> on the “pit bull” <\/FONT>case<\/FONT><\/A> of Florida Bar v. <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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Pape & Chandler, <\/FONT>Mary Whisner<\/FONT><\/A> at <\/FONT>Trial Ad Notes<\/EM> asks<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/A> a very good <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/DIV>
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question: “Is it good to be considered a pit bull in the courtroom?”<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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(Nov. 21, 2005) .  Whisner points out that during the 2004 presidential <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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campaign Ed Gillespie was called “<\/FONT>President Bush’s pit bull<\/FONT><\/A>,” and notes:<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/DIV>
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“It doesn’t seem that he minds this — or that Republicans as <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/DIV>
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a whole feel demeaned because the chairman of the Republican <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/DIV>
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Party has that nickname. It’s ironic, because during the heat of <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/DIV>
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the presidential campaign, i<\/FONT>t seemed that “trial lawyer” was used <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/DIV>
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as an insult, but “pit bull” was a term of respect.<\/FONT><\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
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\"dog Of course, there is an even more recent example of a lawyer called <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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a <\/FONT>pit bull — Harriet Miers.  According to the Washington Post<\/FONT><\/EM><\/A> last June: <\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/DIV>
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“When he was governor of Texas, Bush offered a less formal <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/DIV>
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assessment at an awards ceremony, calling Miers ‘a pit bull <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/DIV>
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in size 6 shoes.’ The line stuck, in no small part because it <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/DIV>
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described her cool but dogged determination.”<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/DIV>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
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You may recall that there were a lot<\/FONT><\/A> of reasons given for Miers’   \"MiersBush\"<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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unsuitability to become an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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Court, but her pit-bull-like qualities were not one of them. Indeed, <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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I seem to remember some who complained she was simply <\/FONT>not<\/EM> <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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enough of a pit bull for their taste.<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV>
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Do you have any examples of “pit bull” being used as a compliment?<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV>
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\"OstrichSand\"  p.s.<\/EM><\/STRONG> Don’t forget to help us choose a symbol<\/A> for the Florida <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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Supreme Court.<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reacting to a post at MyShingle on the “pit bull” case of Florida Bar v. Pape & Chandler, Mary Whisner at Trial Ad Notes asks a very good question: “Is it good to be considered a pit bull in the courtroom?” (Nov. 21, 2005) .  Whisner points out that during the 2004 presidential campaign Ed Gillespie was called “President […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2926],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pre-06-2006"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kP1R-16g","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4232"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12906,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4232\/revisions\/12906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}