[njudah]

Slight correction; it was John Tower, a potential Defense Secretary nominee whose nomination was scuttled when a local paper got hold of his video rental records. He wasn't in congress at the time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Tower

[nvrspyx]

Slight correction; it was not John Tower (and I'm curious how you mistook the two), it was Robert Bork. He was nominated for the Supreme Court by Ronald Reagan. His video rental history was obtained by Michael Dolan. His nomination was rejected by the Senate, but it wasn't necessarily over his video rental history because the videos he rented were entirely unremarkable. However, it brought up questions of privacy and resulted in the Video Privacy Protection Act of 1988.

EDIT: I should add that accessing his video rental history was used as an example and a counter to Bork's own anti-privacy position, which is probably the real reason his nomination was rejected (although I can't say for sure since I'm no expert in this stuff and this all happened before I was even born)

You'll find the info at the following link under the "U.S. Supreme Court Nomination" section:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Bork

[samstave]

Huh, I was thinking that it was going to reveal porn or some-such... but nope

>During debate over his nomination, Bork's video rental history was leaked to the press. His video rental history was unremarkable, and included such harmless titles as A Day at the Races, Ruthless People, and The Man Who Knew Too Much. Writer Michael Dolan, who obtained a copy of the hand-written list of rentals, wrote about it for the Washington City Paper.[36] Dolan justified accessing the list on the ground that Bork himself had stated that Americans had only such privacy rights as afforded them by direct legislation. The incident led to the enactment of the 1988 Video Privacy Protection Act.[37][38]

>To pro-choice rights legal groups, Bork's originalist views and his belief that the Constitution did not contain a general "right to privacy" were viewed as a clear signal that, should he become a justice of the Supreme Court, he would vote to reverse the Court's 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade. Accordingly, a large number of groups mobilized to press for Bork's rejection, and the resulting 1987 Senate confirmation hearings became an intensely partisan battle.

[njudah]

I stand corrected thank you! (Perhaps I was confused as they were both rejected nominees around the same time?)

[nvrspyx]

No problem! I went to the wikipedia article you linked and didn't see any mention of the video rental records, so I got curious and tried to look it up and couldn't find anything until I looked up the privacy act, which led me to Bork. That was the only reason I was curious how the two were mistaken as I am not knowledgeable in the slightest about these things. I just like to trek down the rabbit holes others provide and try to pay it forward with any corrections I stumble upon.

So thanks for the rabbit hole!

[artificial]

Borks also the origin of the term “Borked” since he was candid in his answers about constitutional policy and this cost him nomination and is now why Supreme Court nominees are more opaque with what they say vs what they think.

[mikeyouse]

I think carrying out Nixon’s Saturday Night Massacre to cover up his numerous watergate crimes was a bigger factor in the failed nomination.. but he certainly did turn into a focus of a lot of grievance.

[TedDoesntTalk]

I'm fairly certain the word existed and was in use before 1988. Do you have a reference for this incident causing the creation of that word?

[pbhjpbhj]

They seem like they might be parallel and unconnected etymologies -- https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bork#Etymology_2.

It would seem strange that a political etymology had a specific impact on the computing world. But the mistype of broken as "borken", and further mis-grammaring to borked would seem consistent with the humour of computing people IME.

The use in computer circles is also just one of "generally broken" (or utterly broken, perhaps) rather than "politically discreditted". I think they might be just coincidental homonyms.

Here's a [not particularly] interesting prior use: https://archive.org/details/Florida_Flambeau_1959/page/n221?... someone borked the pronounciation in Russian of beetroot soup ("borsht", Russian "s" is with a "c" shaped letter).

[NSCFType]

> VERB

> informal US

> Obstruct (someone, especially a candidate for public office) by systematically defaming or vilifying them.

> Origin

> 1980s from the name of Robert Bork (1927–2012), an American judge whose nomination to the Supreme Court (1987) was rejected following unfavourable publicity for his allegedly extreme views.

from OED https://www.lexico.com/definition/bork

[snickerbockers]

What in the hell was he renting that ruined his career?

[tasty_freeze]

Until recently, Supreme Court nominees tended to sail through congressional approval even when the President who nominates candidates was different from the majority party that approves them. Bork was the first one in a long time who was rejected by the Democrats.

But note that Bork was not a mainline candidate -- he had some significant baggage and was well outside the legal mainstream in his opinions on privacy. It was that latter thing that sank Bork, who held that there is no guarantee of privacy.

https://schoolworkhelper.net/robert-borks-the-right-of-priva...

The baggage was related to Watergate. When it became apparent to Nixon that Watergate was going to sink him, Nixon tried to get the special prosecutor dismissed. Nobody would do it, except Bork:

> Richard Nixon ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire independent special prosecutor Archibald Cox; Richardson refused and resigned effective immediately. Nixon then ordered Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus to fire Cox; Ruckelshaus refused, and also resigned. Nixon then ordered the third-most-senior official at the Justice Department, Solicitor General Robert Bork, to fire Cox. Bork considered resigning, but instead carried out the dismissal as Nixon asked.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturday_Night_Massacre

[pjc50]

Actually Robert Bork, and I misremembered : not actually compromising, but worse, a reporter being a smart Alec. Bork had asserted that there was no right to privacy so a reporter set out to demonstrate that invading his privacy would upset him.

https://web.archive.org/web/20071009150938/http://www.theame...

[unlinked_dll]

Bork was an originalist so I doubt invading his privacy would change his stance. Kind of a dumb move by the reporter.

[Jamwinner]

Except that it worked...

[wavefunction]

It's great when sanctimonious fools like Bork are hoist by their own petard.

[SmirkingRevenge]

I don't know the specifics of this case... but back then, video rental stores did big business renting porn. That definitely could ruin a career or two, especially in those days.

[TedDoesntTalk]

The chains like Blockbuster had no porn, at least none that I ever saw. Maybe the independent stores did?

[nitrogen]

Yes, I remember a 21+ section in the rental store as a kid, in a small room next to the kids section and partitioned by a ribbon curtain.