Ace thinks he’s using “teabagger” deliberately, to be provocative. I don’t. What I think you’re seeing here is a byproduct of the left using that word to deride tea partiers so casually and frequently — even among congressmen — that Conyers may honestly not know it’s a derogatory term. He may simply be hearing it so often from his colleagues that he thinks it’s legit. At least, that’s my preferred explanation; the idea that an 80-year-old would stoop to an insult this crass and childish is too depressing to contemplate.

The rest of it is straight out of the left’s dimestore psychoanalysis handbook: Tea partiers are too dumb/angry/racist to know what’s in their own best interest, so we’re better off ignoring them — and, I guess, the gigantic majority that’s angry at government right now — and passing whatever insane liberal boondoggles we like. Because ultimately, those boondoggles are for their own good, right? This is unvarnished nanny statism, as condescending as you’ll ever hear it formulated. It’s not that the government can make better decisions for you than you can, it’s that you’re too much of a rage-drenched wretch to make good decisions in the first place. There’s your Democratic Party campaign slogan for November.