°(US politics) To defeat a judicial nomination through a concerted attack on the nominee's character, background and philosophy.
°(US politics) To fire an honest government official in an attempt to prevent embarrassment to and exposure of a dishonest government officeholder who has conspired to commit high crimes (term first used by the National Lampoon Radio Hour in to describe the 1973 firing of Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox by Solicitor General Robert Bork in the "Saturday Night Massacre" orchestrated by Bork and President Richard Nixon).