Root Canal Republicans
n.— «Root Canal Republicans are led by Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan) and House Minority leader Bob Michel (R-Ill). The Root Canal Republicans want to balance the budget by spending cuts across the board and put forth a generally uninspiring view of passive government. The major asset of Root Canal traditionalists: Tremendous influence in the corridors of power in Washington.» —“GOP headed for tough times” by Philip Burgess Annapolis Institute (Md.) Nov. 17, 1992. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
A physician in Blowing Rock, North Carolina, shares some of the vocabulary of his patients from Appalachia. There, a misery is anything painful, such as a misery in my jaw if they have a painful tooth or a misery in my back if they have lumbar pain...