News-Record.com

Nancy Pelosi hammered President Bush in an interview with Wolf Blitzer, but she threw in an expression typically used by Southerners to soften an otherwise unkind remark:

"Well, you know, God bless him, bless his heart, the president of the United States, a total failure, losing all credibility with the American people on the economy, on the war, on energy, you name the subject."

I'll leave it to another day to discuss whether Bush has been a "total failure" as president (the record doesn't look good, but "total" is a hard assessment to back up).

More interesting for today is Pelosi's sugar-coating of her insulting comment. Her terminology is very familiar to those of us in this part of the country.

An entry on the online Urban Dictionary explains.

Ed Cone wrote about the expression in his N&R column a few years back:

"Another insult, although velveted and used by the sweetest-sounding ladies, is 'bless his heart,' meaning, 'I agree with the unkind thing you have just said but do not wish to say so myself.'

"Example: 'That newspaper columnist is as dumb as a box of rocks,' he said. 'Bless his heart,' she replied."

Bluegrass artist Sam Bush recorded a song called "Bless his heart."

The late, great son of the South, Lewis Grizzard, made liberal use of the phrase, as in:

"For years, I thought drive-in theaters were for watching movies out-of-doors. Then I went to one with Kathy Sue Loudermilk, bless her heart. She was a lovely child and a legend before her sixteenth birthday. She was twenty-one, however, before she knew an automobile had a front seat."

It surprised me to hear the term coming from San Francisco resident Pelosi. Then I remembered Pelosi was born and raised in Baltimore, close enough to the South to absorb some of its language and manners. She can lay claim to the kindly, cutting expression, and she used it deftly.

Bless her heart.