Working Hard To Be Insulted

Raise your hand if you know:

• Saying "Democrat" instead of "Democratic" is an insult
• That dates back to the Harding Administration
• Not to mention Wendell Willkie

And actually we don't often mention Wendell Willkie, who ran against Franklin Roosevelt in 1940.

Columnist Ruth Marcus tells us all of this to show how President Bush can singlehandedly change the tone of debate in Washington by saying Democratic. That's not a blogger talking, that's Ruth Marcus:

If he wanted to, President Bush could change the tone in Washington with a single syllable: He could just say "ic." That is, he could stop referring to the opposition as the "Democrat Party" and call the other side, as it prefers, the Democratic Party.

The derisive use of "Democrat" in this way was a Bush staple  during the recent campaign....

It must be possible for politicians to be hypersensitive about Republicans not saying Democratic. That's the world we live in. Marcus explains why, and well she should since it needs some explaining:

A party run by political bosses, [Harold] Stassen told Safire for a 1984 column, "should not be called a 'Democratic Party.' It should be called the 'Democrat party.' "

I'd feel better if everyone acquainted themselves with the differences between Sunnis and Shiites instead of a politically ancient coinage, that, in other grammatical schemes, is officially inoffensive. We're not about to say Democratics won the election. I hope. Please God no.

But I'm out of the loop.