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"Blood bath."

I'm reading "Has Trump Drawn the Water for a ?Republican Blood Bath??/And if he has, what should Biden do with his first term?" (NYT), a conversation between Gail Collins and Bret Stephens, which ends:

Bret: Oh, and speaking of the Senate: Did you hear Nebraska?s Ben Sasse tear into Trump during that phone call with his constituents? Too little, too late, in my view, though it?s always nice to hear what Republicans really think of their favorite president. 

Gail: Yeah, thanks to Sasse we can point to a sitting senator from his own party who accused him of screwing up the coronavirus crisis, cozying up to dictators and white supremacists and drawing the water for a ?Republican blood bath.? Can?t get much better than that. Catch you again next week, Bret. God knows what will have happened by then.

I'm thinking ? do you draw water for a blood bath? Just taking the metaphor seriously ? and I'll put to the side the violence of the imagery ? isn't the liquid for a blood bath blood? 

A "blood bath" is, in its oldest figurative meaning, according to the OED, "A battle or fight at which much blood is spilt; a wholesale slaughter, a massacre." Figurative in the sense of "bath." The blood is real blood. That goes back to 1843. The fully figurative meaning ? "A dramatic loss or heavy defeat" ? with both the bath and the blood as metaphor ? is traced back only to 1967. 

1834 London Med. Gaz. 22 Feb. 813 (heading) On blood-baths... According to a dark tradition,..the ancient kings of Egypt used to bathe in human blood when they were seized with leprosy. 

1895 Cincinnati Med. Jrnl. May 380/2 Although French doctors do not often prescribe these forms of treatment, ?blood baths? are not infrequently used....

I would like you to speak to the medical doctors to see if there?s any way that you can take a blood bath to cure the coronavirus. You know? If you could? And maybe you can, maybe you can?t. Again, I say maybe you can, maybe you can?t. I?m not a doctor. Have you ever heard of that? 

Full post as published by Althouse on October 19, 2020 (boomark / email).