Hypocrisy-nailing zinger

The Polygamy Follies
U.S. Senate, 1903

All hell broke loose in 1903 when the Utah legislature elected Reed Smoot to the U.S. Senate. Hearings were immediately convened with an eye toward expelling him due to the Mormon practice of polygamy.

Smoot wasn’t a polgyamist. Never had been. The problem? He was a Mormon apostle. In that capacity, Smoot had defended polygamy right up until the Mormon Church officially ended it.

Mormon apostle and U.S. Senator Reed Smoot, circa 1903

But it is Idaho Senator William E. Borah, a Republican and a monogamous Mormon, whom we celebrate with this post, for his glorious, hypocrisy-nailing zinger delivered in Smoot’s defense. “I would rather serve in this august body with a polygamist who doesn't polyg,” Borah said, “than with a monogamist who doesn't monog.” 

The expulsion vote fell short of the required two-thirds. Smoot took and kept his senate seat.

Borah’s quip is as apt today as it was in 1903.