Word: besmirches
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...want, perhaps even need real men (women need not apply) who can stand up to the ruthless terror tactics of Islamic fanatics, outwit and ultimately outgun the miscreants who choose to try to besmirch this nation's honor...
...Iran's options also appeared to be limited. Given the Khomeini regime's past expressions of support for anti-American terrorists in the Middle East, Iran was not likely to besmirch its image by staging a daring raid to rescue American and Kuwaiti hostages. Even if Tehran had the political will to challenge the militants, it probably lacked the military know-how to carry off such a risky mission without endangering the lives of all the hostages on board. And without the direct cooperation of Iranian officials, no outside power was likely to intervene to end the deadlock...
...expect Harvard to deal with their problems adequately. And a decentralized policy makes it very hard to keep the system accountable. Indeed, Harvard's current policies are not as geared to being responsive and finding internal remedies as they are in avoiding public court battles which embarrass and besmirch the University. Harvard's complicated system of appeals and channels frustrates and confuses more than anything else. An employee would be so tired after pursuing internal mechanisms, and the incident might have been so far in the past (if indeed the employee is still with the University), that the isolated individual...
...THEN, as a congresswoman, did she vote for no less than six packages which included federal funding for abortion? Robert McCarthy asked that question during his unsuccessful Congressional campaign against Heckler in 1980. Heckler had never dreamed those funding votes would come back to besmirch her pro-life image. "McCarthy forced Heckler in a role," Pierce says, "where people would look at her and say she's at best a wimp and at worst a liar" Pierce calls McCarthy "the great untold story of the Margaret Heckler Barney Frank race." By forcing Heckler to defend both sides of the fence...
Perhaps, but the excesses of the 1960s should not be used to besmirch reforms that were valuable. They too derived from a distinguished intellectual tradition. Its founding father was Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who argued in his novel Emile that children are not miniature adults and should not be drilled into becoming full-grown robots. "Everything is good as it comes from the hand of the Creator," said Rousseau; "everything degenerates in the hands...