Reply #7: Not only can I conceive of it, I YEARN for it!

[mcscajun]

"-gate" simply trivializes whatever the current scandal is by lumping it in with everything that's gone before. "Nothing new to see here folks, same old shit, move along."

Please, please, please, let's get beyond "-gate" SCANDAL is a much better and more loaded word. Overuse of the "-gate" from Watergate (the name of the apartment/office complex where the Democratic Party HQ break-in occurred) has acquired an association with scandal in some folks' eyes without ever having the stronger meaning of scandal...but bottom line, it's a made-up meaning.

I do believe it's one of the reasons no other scandal has ever gotten OUT of the GATE.