Mugwump...

[catlady_de_los_angeles]

Original Yahoo! HPFG Header:
No: HPFGUIDX C2647
From: catlady_de_los_angeles
Subject: Re: Mugwump...
Reply To: [Yahoo! #2584] Mugwump...
Date: 6/22/00 11:02 pm  (ET)

> Note for UK members: London's new Mayor, Ken
> Livingstone, is clearly a Mugwump of the highest
> order, and, if he can sort out the London
> Underground, he'll be declared a Magician too.

It is Tony Blair, not Ken Livingstone, who is a Mugwump: "he has his
mug on one side of the fence, and his wump on the other side". IE a
centrist. As a child, I was told that the 19th century political cartoon
with the caption I just quoted was the origin of the word "mugwump",
but more recently I was told that the cartoonist was mocking a political
secret society called The Indian Lodge of Chief Mugwump.