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Title: NRO Admits Conservatives Coined ‘Teabagger’
Source:
RAW STORY
URL Source: http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0507/nro-admmits-wing-coined-teabaggers/
Published: May 7, 2010
Author: David Edwards
Post Date: 2010-05-07 11:53:01 by Brian S
Keywords: None
Views: 4627
Comments: 19
Conservatives are up in arms because a new book revealed that President Barack Obama once referred to Tea Party protesters as "teabaggers." But one publication on the far right has revealed that conservatives actually coined the term.
ABC News' Jake Tapper reported:
In Jonathan Alter’s "The Promise: President Obama, Year One," President Obama is quoted in an November 30, 2009, interview saying that the unanimous vote of House Republicans vote against the stimulus bills "set the tenor for the whole year ... That helped to create the tea-baggers and empowered that whole wing of the Republican Party to where it now controls the agenda for the Republicans."
Tea Party activists loathe the term "tea baggers," which has emerged in liberal media outlets and elsewhere as a method of mocking the activists and their concerns.
Writing for the Hot Air blog, Allahpundit questioned why Obama has yet to use the term publicly if he is truly unaware of its sexual connotation.
Doubtless the defense here will be that The One wasn’t aware of the sexual connotation and therefore had no idea that the term offends tea partiers. Funny thing, though: Offhand, I can’t recall a single instance of him saying “teabaggers” publicly. Not in speeches, not in interviews, not at town halls, not even at that fundraiser a few weeks ago when he goofed on protesters by saying they should be thanking him for cutting their taxes, i.e. for running up gigantic deficits. If he doesn’t know the term’s impolitic, how come he hasn’t innocently used it on camera yet?
It's true that liberals like Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow have adopted the term as an epithet but National Review Online finds that the word was actually coined by conservatives.
The first big day for this movement was Tax Day, April 15. And organizers had a gimmick. They asked people to send a tea bag to the Oval Office. One of the exhortations was “Tea Bag the Fools in D.C.” A protester was spotted with a sign saying, “Tea Bag the Liberal Dems Before They Tea Bag You.” So, conservatives started it: started with this terminology. But others ran with it and ran with it.
MSNBC's Keith Olbermann notes that this fact hasn't stopped right wingers from blasting Obama for using the term. "But this reference has not led the group to, you know, swallow their tongues about their incessantly phony outrage over the term. It`s led a T.P. supporter Melissa Couthier to describe the president as a flaming hypocrite. And just in case anybody missed the point, to illustrate her web post with an animated version of the act from which the tea baggers drew their nickname. Way to show the president what decorum looks like," said Olbermann.
This video is from MSNBC's Countdown, broadcast May 6, 2010.
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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 6.
#2. To: go65 (#1)
They were never talking about the disgusting sexual act Olberman, Maddow and the rest of the leftwingers mean.
The irony with these ongoing attacks on the Tea Party movement is each none adds the the determination of its membership to show up in November and vote. And it also makes it more likely which each passing slur hurled at them they will vote for those that take them seriously, and at the very least are polite.
It ain't the Democrats benefitting from it come November.
#5. To: Badeye (#2)
The irony with these ongoing attacks on the Tea Party movement is each none adds the the determination of its membership to show up in November and vote. And it also makes it more likely which each passing slur hurled at them they will vote for those that take them seriously, and at the very least are polite.
Are you oblivious to the fact that tea party candidates lost across the board in this week's primaries and that even Sarah Palin is no longer endorsing the tea party?
#6. To: go65 (#5)
No, I'm not surprised in the least a grass roots attempt at running third party candidates within the GOP lost in the primaries. And I didn't know Palin was 'endorsing' the TP as a 'political party', let alone she 'stopped'.
Are you oblivious to the fact the Democrats lose these millions of voters, many of whom voted for Obama, they get their asses kicked not just in November, but in the 2012 race as well?
The political strategy of attacking these people by denigrating them in the vilest possible terms is DUMB POLITICS.
Especially given the current Majority Party at the Federal Level is in such deep trouble politically.
Replies to Comment # 6.
You've got to be wearing out the inside heel of those Ruby Slippers, Boof.
#9. To: Badeye (#6)
Are you oblivious to the fact the Democrats lose these millions of voters, many of whom voted for Obama, they get their asses kicked not just in November, but in the 2012 race as well?
You know, I remember Rush Limabaugh with his "Clinton Countdown Calendar" during Clinton's first term, counting down the days until the 1996 election.
How'd that turn out?
Oh, and happy reading:
Rasmussen Reports:
The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely voters in the state, taken Wednesday, finds Kasich again with 46% support and Strickland with 45%. Three percent (3%) of Ohio voters favor some other candidate, and six percent (6%) remain undecided.
Until last month, Kasich had led Strickland by anywhere from six to 11 points in surveys stretching back to December
Chuckle.
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