Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) told CNN’s Soledad O’Brien that Rand Paul’s threat to “nullify” Obama’s executive orders pertaining to guns was a poor choice of words; “nullify” is a “code word,” he says. What’s it a code word for? Kaine won’t say:
It’s a states right argument that gets used in times of great controversy. The President is acting by executive power that is legally conferred on him. And as you pointed out, you went over these executive orders. They’re basic, common sense things.
[He is asked once again to clarify what it is a code word for.] We’ll see what it is. But the notion that we’re going to nullify a presidential action when the President is acting pursuant to law, you know, that’s just kind of this anti-government rhetoric that I’m surprised to hear somebody in government using.
Who knows what any of this is supposed to mean, but this is a fairly common tactic: the implication that the Left speaks honestly and forthrightly, while non-leftists use wicked “code words” by which they secretly convey their sinister intentions to their supporters.
Bob Murphy and I dealt with the whole “code word” stuff — e.g., nullification is code for racism, slavery, etc. — right here (the blooper reel is better than the video itself, I might add):
