The left has gotten a lot of "giggles" over the term "teabaggers" in describing Americans who attend the tea parties. For those of you who don't know, teabagging is a perverse sexual term. It is interesting to me that the left not only knew the term, but seemed very comfortable using it. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised.
Those having the most fun have been CNN's Anderson Cooper, Rachel Maddow of MSNBC and frequent guest pundit Ana Marie Cox. Last week I posted about tweeting with Ana marie Cox where she promised me she would stop using the term if I donated to a charity she was sponsoring for research in colon cancer in memory of Tony Snow. I donated $100 and was her top contributor. She thanked me and promised she would stop. She even asked if "teabaggist" would be cheating, and I said yes it would be.
Well, . I'm not sure why I trusted the word of a lefty, but I take comfort in the fact that my money did go to a good cause.
I actually think in the video she was trying to find a way to get out of saying "teabagger" and just go with teabaggist so that her crowd wouldn't make fun of her for agreeing to not say it. Heaven forbid she tell Maddow (the cool kid in their high school of punditry) that she had promised a conservative not to slur good people with that term anymore. She might be ostracized by the popular kids at Lefty High!! It's clear she is being snarky there, but who knows? Maybe she won't actually use the term anymore. If she doesn't, I will give her kudos.
I expect this kind of immature name calling from the blogosphere, and now it doesn't even surprise me with the mainstream media on air talent. But I have to admit my jaw dropped when the President of the United States used this sexual slur, AND a former President of the United States as well.
From The New York Times:
Mr. Obama, during his private pep talk to Democrats, recognized Mr. Owens's election and then posed a question to the other lawmakers. According to Representative Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, who supports the health care bill, the president asked, "Does anybody think that the teabag, anti-government people are going to support them if they bring down health care? All it will do is confuse and dispirit" Democratic voters "and it will encourage the extremists."
From Politico's Politico 44 blog:
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said Clinton described the ongoing tea party protests against the Democratic agenda as a sign their party was making progress.Whitehouse quoted Clinton arguing: "The reason the tea-baggers are so inflamed is because we are winning."
Both statements are completely without class.
I can't remember a time in Presidential history when a President has slurred so many of the American people in such a way. Even on his worst day, President Bush would never have used such a term about the anti war protesters, much less just those that disagreed with him politically.
Of course one might expect such a thing from Clinton, a man know for his sexual perverse ways, but I must say I am shocked at President Obama. I may disagree with him politically, but I never thought he would ever say such a thing.
Shame on both of them.
