In my ongoing campaign for succinct speech ...

With the Senate having approved a funding measure to save teachers' jobs and help the states pay for welfare, we now have the House returning to the Capital today for what undoubtedly will be called an "up-or-down" vote.

Up or down. It's one of those modifiers like "ongoing," adding nothing to the sentence except more words. With regard to proposals of almost any kind, if a vote isn't up or down, it's not a vote.

I'm pretty sure up-or-down was first applied to vote by politicians who sought to cloak their legislation in the flag. "All we want is an up-or-down vote on the measure," they would say. Clearly, the opposition was un-American in its efforts to delay.

The phrase quickly found its way into numerous talking points, at times to humorous effect. I recall one senator demanding an "up-and-down" vote, which would indeed be a democratic innovation the Founding Fathers didn't envision. Even the media has followed right along.

Besides, except for Spartacus reruns, where have you seen anyone signal their vote for or against anything by thrusting their thumb up or down?