"Money is the mother’s milk of politics” a December 14, 1962 Time magazine story quoted from Jesse Unruh (1922-1987), then speaker of California’s state assembly.  The quotation became much-used in 1963 and is still used as a classic political...

To have “not one red cent” is to have absolutely no money. The U.S. penny (or “cent") from 1793-1857 was made of reddish copper; the phrase “not worth a copper” was also popular in this period. “Red cent” has nothing to do with the Indian...

A classic political affiliation joke involves Theodore Roosevelt or a Northerner. The Northerner asks a Southerner what political party he’s a member of and why. The Southerner responds that he’s a Democrat because his father was a Democrat and his...

The greatest form of patriotism is said to be someone who lays down his life for his country. A joke circulated in the American Legion Weekly in 1923 that the definition of an “orator” is someone who is willing to “lay down your life for his...

A “political football” is politically divisive issue, something that gets “kicked” around by both sides. The term is cited in English at least as early as 1748 and 1772—about a century before the birth of American football and before even the...