John Fund on Friday smacked down Bill Maher for calling Tea Partiers "teabaggers."
As the panel discussion of HBO's "Real Time" convened, the host said, "The teabaggers I guess think they had a big win Tuesday."
He then asked the American Spectator's Fund, "Why are they so silent on financial reform?"
After Fund answered the question, he said, "I think people should be called by the term that they use themselves...Using 'teabaggers' is equivalent to, I have atheist friends. They don't like to be called 'Christian haters.' They prefer to be called atheists (video follows with partial transcript and commentary):
BILL MAHER, HOST: The teabaggers I guess think they had a big win Tuesday. Why are they so silent on financial reform? Why is that?
JOHN FUND, AMERICAN SPECTATOR: They're not. They're against it.
MAHER: Really? [...]
MAHER: Very good, John, you got the crowd here to applaud teabaggers. That's not a, that's not a, that's a pretty neat trick I must say.
FUND: Well, here's an even neater trick: I think people should be called by the term that they use themselves. You know, pro-Choice people...
MAHER: Oh, give up on that.
FUND: Using "teabaggers" is equivalent to, I have atheist friends. They don't like to be called "Christian haters." They prefer to be called atheists.
MAHER: Whoever called them Christian haters?
FUND: Oh, you should go to some churches.
MAHER: I shouldn't. I never heard that.
FUND: So, let's, let's call them, let's call them the Tea Bag Movement.
MAHER: Okay, like that's the most important issue. But, let me ask about, I mean, Libertarianism, because this is a big part of Rand Paul's victory. This is a big part apparently of the Tea Bag Movement's movement.
Nice. Reminds me of when Tucker Carlson did the same thing to the Nation's Katrina vanden Heuvel on ABC's "This Week" back in January.
Frankly, I think more conservatives should correct liberals in the media every single time they refer to members of this movement so disparagingly.
How about you?
