You Say Tomato, I Say Tomahto

The New York Times has a surprisingly good article on the war of words in the Social Security debate. Is it privatization? Personal accounts? Private accounts? Or the Republican term du jour, "voluntary personal retirement accounts"? I'd have liked a bit more history of the term privatization, and I'd have really liked for this article to have hit two months ago, but it's pretty good nonetheless. And, any piece that starts with an anecdote like this gets my love:

Mr. Bush complained last week that " 'privatization' is a trick word," intended to "scare people." Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader, interrupted a news conference to correct a reporter who asked about "personal" accounts.

"It's 'privatization,' " Mr. Reid said, adding that "personal accounts" was "the Republican term."

I just love seeing Reid prove he knows how to play this game. And it's kinda funny to watch the press corps get batted around, their own fetish for politician-dictated objectivity being used to confuse and browbeat them.

ALso, the Times seems to have ignored it, but you guys had some pretty good naming ideas a few months back...