Listen up, internet: Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) wants you to know there’s nothing sexual about “shooting wads.”
It all started with a colorful quote Hatch gave to Politico last week.
“We’re not going back to health care,” Hatch said, referring to Republicans’ failed efforts to repeal Obamacare. “We’re in tax now. As far as I’m concerned, they shot their wad on health care and that’s the way it is. I’m sick of it.”
Political observers were quick to snicker on Twitter. But a few hours after the article was published Monday, Hatch’s office clarified exactly what the 83-year-old senator meant.
The Mormon Republican’s office said he’d been channelling the Civil War-era term for the barrier between one’s gunpowder and corresponding musket projectile:
As few of you were alive during the Civil War, here's a valuable jargon lesson on "wads" and the shooting of them. https://t.co/dOYvcfgImO pic.twitter.com/wk9aaNb3s2
— Senator Hatch Office (@senorrinhatch) August 7, 2017
Hatch’s communications director, Matt Whitlock, seemed at least partly amused at the mix-up:
No it's not. It was used quite often during the Civil War when Hatch was just a young Senator. https://t.co/wJCeAukE4f
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) August 7, 2017
Before everyone freaks out this was a very common term when Senator Hatch was a child and everyone used muskets. https://t.co/wJCeAukE4f
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) August 7, 2017
It really is.
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) August 7, 2017
Even urban dictionary's first definition refers to muskets. I can't link to that but here's Dictionary dot com. https://t.co/o7RU6vQF6R pic.twitter.com/Rh4GSYOMTH
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) August 7, 2017
For your young jaded followers who might be unfamiliar with Civil War jargon — https://t.co/Wkruwm5Qa4
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) August 7, 2017
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) August 7, 2017
See I told you. –> @ everyone in my mentions. https://t.co/Ornql7islS
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) August 7, 2017
See, Tobias gets it. https://t.co/GFYAnYhIhM
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) August 7, 2017
Caught in a lie here. https://t.co/7Gah0le6Zv
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) August 7, 2017
Thank you for lending your expertise to this. Hopefully it will help to get everyone's minds out of the gutter.
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) August 7, 2017
Oh you'd be surprised.
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) August 7, 2017
Surprisingly enough even Urban Dictionary has two other definitions before the one you're thinking of. https://t.co/X7KM9AgqpE pic.twitter.com/EbVDR0SlIJ
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) August 7, 2017
No. It's not.
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) August 7, 2017
Per usual @darth gets it. https://t.co/UQ5U7Y6qpD
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) August 7, 2017
There's never a time when I'm not asking myself that question.
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) August 7, 2017
Right?
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) August 7, 2017
And TBH I learned about the musket "shoot your wad" definition this morning. But I'm still going to pretend everyone's dumb for not knowing.
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) August 7, 2017
Feels like you didn't get the joke. https://t.co/HhcFSCSGPY
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) August 7, 2017
Well damnit.
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) August 7, 2017
Your understanding of Streisand Effect is flawed. Our (humorous) effort was to explain that an alternate definition exists.
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) August 7, 2017
And I'm going to guess that you and I have a very different understanding of what's "extremely obvious" in comms as well.
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) August 7, 2017
This isn't a "clarification." This is him politely pointing out to the vulgar and ignorant among us the common definition of a phrase. https://t.co/8ekJhr4I41
— Gabriel Malor (@gabrielmalor) August 7, 2017
I've never had to say "that's the joke" so much in my life.
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) August 7, 2017
I think “shat their pants” is a closer approximation of what they did.
“It’s not the crime, it’s the clarification.”
You guys will screw up taxes too. You’re better off shutting up about all of it.
So easy to believe he’s actually talking about 19th century muskets as that’s where Republican are still stuck in their social policies.
I find this pretty funny and applaud the staffer for keeping his humor about this. I have no trouble believing that 80-something Hatch, who has lived his life in a Mormon bubble, wouldn’t know any better. Now, if only his politics weren’t so execrable…
It really WAS a gun term first. If you fire a shotgun even today you see the wadding, not the pellets. The wad is a real thing. “shot his wad” would refer to, say, a poorly trained soldier who forgot to push the actual bullet into the barrel before pulling the trigger