If the last resort of a scoundrel is patriotism, then the next-to-last must surely be name-calling.

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On the one hand many people probably think that Kenneth Lay was a scoundrel whose gains were ill gotten.

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Above all, he is not Yasser Arafat, the Palestinians' elected president, whom, unfairly or not, they have written off as a scoundrel.

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While Evergreen may seem like a scoundrel for the bait and switch, the company is only acting in the best interests of its shareholders.

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In the film, Depp plays John Wilmot, the Earl of Rochester, a well-known scoundrel in the court of Charles II (who is played by John Malkovich).

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But he continued to live in Venice with his family and his friends, the best of whom was Pietro Aretino, a magnificent and magnificently bearded scoundrel.

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