I'm hardly naive about the willingness of politicians to twist the English language to suit their ends, so that tax hikes become "revenue enhancement" and cutting Medicare turns into "preserve, protect, and improve." But the thoroughly relativistic approach to truth employed by Frank Luntz never fails to take my breath away.

Luntz's latest memo advising Republicans on how to fight financial reform, obtained by Sam Stein, is a classic of the genre. The unstated argument of the memo is that, being determined to oppose legislation that most Americans support, Republicans should simply pretend they are arguing against something completely different. Luntz makes it clear that the public demands reform. "You must be on the side on change," he writes. "Always." (There is no pretense anywhere in Luntz's paper that Republicans do, or even should, have a reform plan of their own.)

He likewise insists Republicans never call the reform bill "reform": "It's not 'reform.' This is not a reform bill. It is the 'Stop the Big Bank Bailout bill." Of course, Luntz does not try to explain why the reform bill is not reform. Indeed, his paper is entitled, "The Language of Financial Reform." It calls to mind the French absurdist Rene Magritte's painting of a pipe, labeled, "This is not a pipe."

That painting, incidentally, was apparently a favorite of the postmodernist philosopher Michel Foucault, who would probably appreciate Luntz's postmodern approach to truth. Luntz's implicit advice is, if you're caught defending an unpopular position, simply pretend it's the opposite. Here is a sample of the argument Luntz urges: