The New Republic, like some other franchises I can name, has a proud past and a rather disgraceful present.  However great it may once have been, it certainly isn’t great any longer and that includes its presence here on the internet.  Last week on one of their “official” blogs, “The Plank”, Christopher Orr wrote a piece called “The Homer Simpson Party” (emphasis mine):

First it was Arlen Specter announcing that he was switching parties explicitly because he didn’t think he could be reelected as a Republican. Next, of course, it was Sarah Palin eschewing politics as usual by vacating the Alaska governor’s mansion eighteen months before the conclusion of her term. Now, it’s Florida Senator Mel Martinez, who’d already announced he wasn’t running for reelection in 2010, following Homer Simpson’s immortal dictum “If at first you don’t succeed, give up” by quitting office early. His reason? “[A]fter nearly twelve years of public service in Florida and Washington, it’s time I return to Florida and my family.”

“Homer Simpson’s immortal dictum”?  Not that I can recall.  In fact, I’m going so far as to call bullshit on this.  “If at first you don’t succeed, give up” does not appear to be a Homer quote, nor a Simpsons quote, nor something that can actually be attributed to anyone.  It’s certainly ascribed to Homer on multiple unsourced quote compilations, but some search engine work also turns it up on a pithy t-shirt and a skydiving bumper sticker.  Credibility!  Yum!

As always it’s possible that it’s from Zombie Simpsons and I’ve either never seen it or just don’t remember it, but that seems unlikely.  It doesn’t exist on Wikiquote, IMDB or SNPP.  Obviously this is just a harmless blog post, but if I’m going to call something an “immortal dictum” and use it as my title, even on a harmless blog post, I’d sure like to have better sources than some random websites.  Then again, I don’t work for The New Republic, so what do I know?