Gangs of numbers

cate007, I believe you're off by 1 if you're thinking of the infamous "Gang of Four" (Wikipedia article).

I idly wondered where the "gang of six" meme came from. Professor Wikipedia's Gang of Six article doesn't say, but it references this July 2009 Ezra Klein article in the Washington Post, which refers to Matt Yglesias at Think Progress , no longer available, referencing the New York Times. Using that Think Progress 404 page's search box on "Matt Yglesias gang of six" also yielded no results, but did suggest searching American Progress Action's advanced search, which gave three results, one of which was Think Again: Of Filibusters and “Stunts,” Then and Now by Eric Alterman in 2007, which refers to "the Gang of 14... “obstructionist” Senate leader Tom Daschle." And there I stopped bothering. (Can you imagine trying to do that pre-Internet?)

So, apparently, the meme has been used and abused repeatedly, since it was first coined to refer to Mao's wife & company in the '60s & '70s. Much like the -gate suffix, I suppose, it's just a handy pejorative reference.

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Rush Limbaugh: Enough of This "Gang Of" Crap