The use of the term "catfish amendment" can be traced back further.
Roy Parker Jr., a former political reporter for the N&O in the 1950s and '60s, credits former state Sen. Cutlar Moore with popularizing, if not coining, the phrase in North Carolina.
Parker said the Lumberton Democrat, who served in the Senate during that era, proposed a bill regulating the insurance industry. Other legislators then sought to kill it with seemingly friendly amendments.
He said Moore explained the term as "gutting" the bill.
"He’d say, 'They tell us this amendment won't do much, but I feel like it may be a catfish amendment,'" Parker recalled. "I can see him standing up there now saying, 'Don’t worry, little catfish, I'm not going to hurt you. I'm just going to gut you."
That appears to be a common Southern joke, however.
More after the jump.
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As pointed out by a commenter here, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution defines "catfish" in a legislative dictionary:
Catfish — A bill that loses the meat, or any power, in the amendment process. Also known as being gutted or Grooverized, in honor of former longtime lawmaker Denmark Groover, an attorney who was an expert at filleting bills. Often used in the sentence, "Hold still little catfish, all I want to do is gut ya," with the bill playing the role of the catfish.
A Feb. 24, 1991, editorial in that same paper credits former Gov. Marvin Griffin, who served from 1955 to 1959, with using the joke as well:
And the punch line for one of his many stories — "Hold still little catfish; all I'm gonna do is gut you" — captured the rawboned gusto with which he put his philosophy into practice.
Anyway, back to Cutlar Moore. Parker, now retired, said Moore got good coverage after he was quoted referring to a catfish amendment in the newspaper, and he began using the term all the time afterward.
"I doubt it originated with him," he said, "but he got the most mileage out of it."
The explanation of "gutting" the bill is a little at odds with current usage, which seems to relate more closely to the "sinking" or "unpalatable" explanations. However, it's not uncommon for later users of a phrase to come up with a retroactive explanation. (Kind of like we are doing now.)
If Moore did originate the term, it probably was not referring to edibility, since he was from Robeson County. The Lumber River there is still a good place to catch catfish, according to this Web site. (Incidentally, a bridge over the river is named for Moore.)
Dome could not find the particular story Parker is referring to, but a Tar Heel of the Week on Moore from July 23, 1961, refers to a minimum-wage bill that sounds similar:
The day the minimum-wage bill came up for debate in the Senate in 1957, he saw lobbyists opposed to the bill handing out gutting amendments to friendly Senators who were supposed to introduce them at the proper time.
When Moore got the floor for debate, he turned to lobbyist-filled galleries, and with a sweep of his arm scolded his Senate colleagues: "There they sit like a treeful of owls, looking down on you to see if you offer those amendments."
It's possible that there was another bill on insurance, or it could be that Parker's memory is faulty. (Moore worked in the insurance industry, according to the Tar Heel article.)
If any Dome readers can narrow down the month, week or day that bill was debated, we'll look it up and see if we can confirm the reference. Send that or other information on "catfish amendments" to dome@newsobserver.com.
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Yes, but
Your original explanation is correct.
But, I think it's not so much the "gutting" reference, as it is the actual joke.
A "catfish amendment" is supposed to sound friendly but it's actually not, just as the fisherman smooth talks the catfish. (Is this a Southern-fried version of The Walrus and the Carpenter?)
Since this morning, I've found a few more references to the "Hold still, little catfish" joke:
In the 1971 book "Congress in Crisis," author Roger Davidson cites former Time correspondent Neil MacNeil, "Because of past criticisms, he says, Congress has often felt toward its academic critics the way the catfish must have felt toward the fisherman: 'Hold still, catfish,' the fisherman said, 'I only want to gut you.'"
A 1982 Clifford Baldowski political cartoon about Ronald Reagan in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution makes use of the phrase as a punchline.
And in 2002, Georgia Sen. Zell Miller was quoted in The New Republic: "Do you know what this farm bill says to the South?" asked Georgia Senator Zell Miller. "'Hold still, little catfish. All I'm going to do is just gut you.'"
Also, former reporter Danny Lineberry e-mailed to say he recalled hearing it in Virginia in the 1980s, and he thinks it may be in "The Shad Treatment," a book about Virginia politics in the early 1970s.
(I don't have a copy of the book handy, but if anyone can send in the relevant passage, I'll post it.)
To sum up, Georgia probably has a stronger claim on originating the phrase "catfish amendment" than North Carolina, but the use of the catfish joke in political speech appears to be widespread in the South.
— RTB