Lemondrop

How lovely -- the word teabagger has been nominated as a Word of the Year finalist in the New American Oxford Dictionary. The term teabagging was already in Urban Dictionary, defined as follows: To have a man insert his scrotum into another person's mouth in the fashion of a teabag into a mug with an up/down (in/out) motion.

So how did a term defining a sexual act rise to be a top contender for Word of the Year? Thank liberals for that one -- particularly those on MSNBC and on left-wing blogs.

Many liberals love using this word to refer to Americans who attended tea parties that broke out all over the country this year in response to the Obama agenda. When I say they love it that is not an understatement.

Jay Nordlinger, writing on the new epithet, pointed to a David Shuster segment on MSNBC where the anchor said, "For most Americans, Wednesday, April 15, will be Tax Day, but ... it's going to be Teabagging Day for the right wing, and they're going nuts for it. Thousands of them whipped out the festivities early this past weekend, and while the parties are officially toothless, the teabaggers are full-throated about their goals. They want to give President Obama a strong tongue-lashing and lick government spending."

Nordlinger continued, "Shuster went on to say that Fox News personalities were "looking forward to an up-close-and-personal taste of teabagging." Etc.,etc., etc. All the while, MSNBC was picturing Republican figures, and the following words were on the screen: 'TEABAG MOUTHPIECES.'"

Maybe at first liberals found it funny that a few of the protesters, who were almost certainly unaware of the sexual definition of the term, used it to ask conservatives to send a tea bag to the Oval Office and "Tea Bag the Fools in D.C."

So the people who consider themselves the cool kids in class got a really good chuckle because the alternate meaning refers to a sex act sometimes performed by two men.

I don't find it even LOL-worthy, but since the liberals' favorite president's approval ratings have dropped they must be desperate for anything that brings a smile. But why are so many fully grown adults repeating this word over and over again and snickering like little kids?

One reason is as basic as the elementary school playground. Most conservatives attending tea parties referred to themselves as "tea partiers" rather than "teabaggers" from the beginning, but since learning of the other meaning of the term teabagger, they make a special point to avoid any "teabag" references. So maybe liberals find it fun because they know conservatives don't want to wear that label.

I think the constant use of the term reveals something deeper than sixth-grade bathroom humor. It shows that most liberals (and many Democrats) are done with those "teabagging" yokels in flyover country with their small-government, tax-cutting, anti-abortion ways. They are no longer interested in even making the pretense of being moderate to compete for their votes. They no longer care if they insult thousands of people with one word.

Most likely though, the constant use of the term is borne of a sense of desperation. The more time that passes, and the more the public learns about the Obama-Reid-Pelosi agenda, the quicker their numbers tank. Liberals are angry that these bumpkins from all those red states have the audacity to call and fax their congressmen and even take to the streets. Who do they think they are?

Evidently those using the teabagger term don't have a clue who they are. Those attending tea parties are not all Republicans. They are not even all traditional conservatives. Many are libertarian and many are even registered Democrats who are not happy with runaway deficit spending and ever-growing government control. With one word, those on the left are letting them all know that they don't need them anymore.

Maybe David Shuster and Anderson Cooper and Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann and Suzanne Malveaux and Bill Maher and Paul Krugman and even many congressional representatives should have checked the electoral data before they decided to use a derogatory term to ridicule millions of voting Americans.

Come November 2010 there will be a lot of Democrats wishing they had a few more teabaggers pulling their lever in the voting booth. Feel free to interpret that any way you want.

Lorie Byrd has been political blogging since 2004. Read more from her at Wizbangblog, Townhall.com and AmericanIssuesProject.org.