The pundit flap over Senator John Kerry's refusal to cross a picket line in order to address the nation's mayors has finally let me understand a phrase we hear all too often, "hard choices and tough decisions."
Of course it wasn't Senator Kerry who provided the clarification. He was faced with a choice between two undesirable situations and picked the one that affected the fewest people--i.e. the executives of the nation's cities who probably weren't too keen on hearing from him anyway.
No, the illumination came from the Republican Governor, Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, who wasn't content to simply step into the limelight but had to get in a dig. "A mayor, a governor, and a president have a responsibility for making tough decisions and balancing budgets; a senator doesn't" is what he said and I finally understood that a tough decisions is one that hurts someone else.
Usually someone whose well-being the speaker holds in his hands and usually someone who carries out orders for a living. It's the sophisticated version of administering a spanking and claiming "this hurts me more than you." Gee, I'm glad I finally got that straight.