VULGARITY VS. VENOM

Fox News, that bastion of objective journalism, had an online article (FOXNews.com, May 5, 2010) on President Obama reportedly having "once used the vulgar term 'tea-bagger' to refer to the Tea Party movement."

Needless to say, only Fox would deem this news. And why is "teabagger" to be thought of as vulgar ? The article says "'Tea-bagging' has been used as a derogatory term for the Tea Party movement because of its sexual connotations."

News to me. And I thought I had heard all the sexual slang.

This is a trifle esoteric. Wes Richards says he thinks it has to do with oral sex among females.

But I wouldn't dare use the alternative that Fox does, "Tea Party movement," or I would be accused of accusing these patriots of gathering to smoke pot. (They're for sure smoking something.)

What is strange also is that there was an article in the veddy veddy conservative National Review not long ago discussing whether the term "teabaggers" should be adopted or resisted. Looks like the Buckley crowd wasn't aware of the vulgar meaning, either.

The article relates, "Tea Party sympathizers were quick to respond. 'It is insulting to have him lecture on civility while being the least civil participant,' Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform said in a written statement. 'Obama, get out of the gutter, wash your mouth out with soap and grow up.'"

Mr. Norquist knew the vulgarism. Vulgarity is the medium in which he works.

And Mr. Norquist, who, as an oligarchist, is also an authority on civic virtue, has now accused the president of the United States -- that most civil and mature-minded of gentlemen -- of being "the least civil participant" in our national discussion. Not while Mr. Norquist is with us!

Whether or not the president was aware of the of the phrase's vulgar implication, it is in everyday use throughout the country; and his remark was made in private.

Mr. Norquist has also instructed the president of the United States to get out of the gutter, to wash his mouth out with soap, and to grow up. How's that for unreason and arrogance?

Somebody on the right said the lefties started this wild disrespect for the presidency by attacking Dubya. I seem to recall Dubya being equated with a village idiot. But Dubya actually did things to make sensible people angry with him, such as invading Iraq, damaging civil liberties, and turning opinion in the rest of the world against us. When someone hurts America, whether from malice or just from obtuseness and messed-up values, you can see why Americans would get mad and be resentful.

Obama, on the other hand, has done nothing wrong and has done much toward repairing what Dubya did to us. And if insulting Dubya was a fault, why are these great patriots compounding the example rather than setting us a better one?

I am very tired of outrageous dolts like Mr. Norquist. There is no getting along with him, and one gets burned by trying to contain his mind's toxins with rationality.

Mr. Norquist, sir, the term "teabagger" now belongs in perpetuity to you and your ilk. It is the sex organs of lesbians that should feel offended by being associated in people's minds with you.