Old Skool

And here I thought I knew something about the right.

I always presumed the fetid conservative habit of insulting the Democratic Party by calling it the "Democrat Party"—emphasis on the "rat"—was an invention of the age of Gingrich. Turns out it goes at least back to the 1950s, as I learned when a kind reader of this op-ed sent me a clip from the September 14, 1960 Washington Star about Richard Nixon, who was reaching out to independents and swing states: "The deep-dyed conservatives who put him into politics originally eye with askance his new-found liberalism. He doesn't even call it the Democrat Party any more, a pin prick dear to them."

Pricks, indeed.

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