Dem Bones are Dry Bones

Word for Word, Schumer Meets His Match

by Dana Milbank (WaPo)

With shutters clicking and flashes popping, Wilson demanded anew that Rove be fired. "I made my bones confronting Saddam Hussein and securing the release of over 2,000 Americans in hiding in Kuwait," he said before a cluster of microphones beneath a portrait of George Washington.

Does anyone suppose that George Washington would know what the heck Superboy Wilson was saying. He "made his bones"? Why would a two time United States Ambassador engage in Mafia-speak on the floor of the United States Senate? Perhaps he felt the need to speak in a language Senator Schumer of New York would understand. I don't know. "To make one's bones" is to become a "made man" in the Mafia, and it is accomplished by killing someone. Shudder - Shudder! Will the real spy in the Plame-Wilson household please stand up? Perhaps Ladyspy Plame's open covert status was just cover for Superboy. Just a thought!

make (one’s) bones v. to kill a person as requirement for membership in a criminal gang, especially if it is one’s first murder; to become a made man; (hence) to earn a reputation.

Crime & Prisons. English. This term is associated with organized crime, especially the Mafia or the mob.

1969 Geoffrey Wolff N.Y. Times (Mar. 8) “Persuasive Picture of Crime’s World” p. C4: Business, for Puzo’s characters, is almost everything. Vito Corleone “made his bones” (first killing) in cold blood for dollars. 1984 William Diehl Hooligans (June 1) p. 46: The story goes that Chevos killed his own brother to make his bones for Skeet.

We are Southerners here, and all we know about making bones was written in the book of Ezekiel. But how appropriate, the old Southern spiritual could have been written for the Plame-Wilson affair, as it is so connected to everything, including the Dems.

DEM BONES Melody

Joseph Wilson cried, "Dem dry bones!"
Joseph Wilson cried, "Dem dry bones!"
Joseph Wilson cried, "Dem dry bones!"
"Oh, hear the word of the Dems."

The foot bone connected to the leg bone,
The leg bone connected to the knee bone,
The knee bone connected to the thigh bone,
The thigh bone connected to the back bone,
The back bone connected to the neck bone,
The neck bone connected to the head bone,
Oh, hear the word of the Dems!

Dem bones, Dem bones gonna rise again'
Dem bones, Dem bones, gonna walk aroun'
Dem bones, Dem bones, gonna do the town'
Oh, hear the word of the Dems.

The head bone connected to the neck bone,
The neck bone connected to the back bone,
The back bone connected to the thigh bone,
The thigh bone connected to the knee bone,
The knee bone connected to the leg bone,
The leg bone connected to the foot bone,
Dems' bones is gonna rise!

Linked at Captain's Quarters, Right Wing Nut House, 'Halleluja!' from The Jawa Report and My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy.