too clever by half

Of course I am more of democrat than you are a republican, but still these protestations that you are not really a republican, you just happen to vote for them in every election, is awfully coy, a little too cute by half (whatever that means, when did 'by half' become a qualifier, and what exactly does it mean, but it has a nice ring, and I know I will be the one to look it up because Beagles is mowing hay or going fishing).  You vote for them every election, you vote in the primaries to choose its candidates, you have ideas on where the party should go, you identify strongly with their most prominent faction, you accuse others of being RINOs.  So what did old Tail Gunner Joe so when he was accusing people of being commies, if it walks like a duck etc.

So what should we call you Republican In Actions Not Name (RIANN), Republicans For All Practical Purposes Who Pretend That They Are Something Else (RFAPPWPTTASE)?  You know maybe a third of the republicans are like you, fuzzy headed libertarians who espouse some pipe dream libertarianism, and are only voting republican until, I don't know, the saucer people come and build your libertarian paradise, and the other third are holy rollers who are only voting republican until the second coming, and the other third are fat cats who actually run the party and dupe the other two thirds with lip service while enacting the only true purpose of the party which is tax cuts for the rich and no regulations that might interfere with their businesses reaping huge profits.

You say you didn't pass the law, the abortion clinic regulations law, but you voted in the guys who enacted it, and surely, as an informed voter, the bulwark of our democracy, you explored the issues before casting your vote.

I expect you were just fine with the Defense of Marriage Act, and I expect you would be just as fine if the supremes decided that gay marriage was illegal throughout the country (you said earlier that it defiled your own marriage), and if the court had ruled that abortion was illegal everywhere, and you have no problem with us Illinoisans being forced to tolerate concealed carry even if most of us don't want it.  You pretend it is the means that bother you, but actually it is the actions that you are concerned with.

Well Hill is out now.  I'm glad she is no longer pretending like she just can't decide, that was way too clever by half for me.  I did look it up.  Whenever things like that come up, I think maybe I won't bother, or maybe I'll wait till the afternoon or evening when I am lolling about and don't have paper to be converted into masterpieces to deal with, but it burns inside me and I always end up looking it up before I finish the paragraph, and in this case, even after reading like five or six entries, which is pretty deep internet research for me, I really couldn't find a definition or origin which was clear to me.  

I think that 'too clever by half' means 'too clever,' or maybe more clearly 'way too clever.'   It has something to do with the way the British, and the whole point of this is that it sounds British and therefore intelligent isn't it, use the word half, where by half means something like 150 percent, something to do one assumes with spooning sugar into their tea. 

Actually it is kind of Clintonian, not the half thing, but the way they have with parsing words just a bit too cleverly (What 'is' is), so that everything they say it sounds like they are lying, which is probably true most of the time anyway.

See, Hill is a dem, and most likely the candidate of the party, and I find her pretty shabby, and yet I don't act like I'm too good for her, like she is some clown the dems will give the nomination to, and I don't have anything to do with that because I live in my urban tower and have these pure liberal/socialist ideals that are too sensitive for the fingers of grubby pols, and I will probably vote for her, but only because she will be running against some yahoo like Rubio, not that I, high-bowed visionary that I am, am actually a DEMOCRAT. 

I don't claim that because I am not too clever by half.

I was going to segue into what Juan Pierre had to say about her, and then into how nutso you gun nuts are (not that you are a gun nut, you just vote like one), but I think maybe I will give partisanism a rest for the morn, and work on my latest masterpiece.