Democrat, Democratic

By Michael J.W. Stickings

In my SOTU live-blog, I mentioned that Bush referred to the Democrat majority, not the Democratic majority. Bush and the Republicans do this all the time. It's annoying. And it's wrong. Why do they do it?

Washington Wire, at the WSJ, explains.

Bush used it "to take a jab at Pelosi and the rest of the new Democratic majority of Congress". It was "almost certainly a deliberate move by Bush, who has used the phrase 'the Democrat Party' for months as a way of needling his opponents" And it goes all the way back to Joe McCarthy. As long as it's the Democrat Party, it isn't democratic. Stupid, but effective. Republican friends of mine have also used it, and continue to do despite my objections, and it never fails to piss me off. And it has been "widely adopted by many Republican lawmakers, conservative political activists, and conservative commentators and pundits at media outlets like Fox News".

Of course it has. From McCarthy to Bush, it's the Republican way.