Chris Matthews schools Darrell Issa on Hardball: It's the Democratic Party, genius

Earlier this evening on Hardball, Chris Matthews had Democratic Congressman Barney Frank and Republican Congressman Darrell Issa on his show as guests talking about President Obama's budget and the deficit. To Matthews' annoyance, Issa referred to the Democratic Party as the "Democrat Party" in the middle of a derisive attack on Speaker Pelosi and her colleagues.

As soon as Issa had stopped talking, Matthews took him to task.

MATTHEWS (to Issa): Well... I think the Democratic Party calls itself the Democratic Party, not the Democrat Party.

Do we have to do this every night? Why do people talk like this? Is this just fighting words, to get the name wrong?

ISSA: No, this isn't intended to be fighting words...

MATTHEWS (interrupts Issa): They call themselves the Democratic Party. Let's just call people what they call themselves and stop the Mickey Mouse, here... Save that for the stump. Seriously.

ISSA: Chris, Chris... Chris....

MATTHEWS: Now let's get to the issue here. Seriously. We've got a fiscal challenge.... I want to get back to Congressman Frank and to some English here.

The whole exchange is hilariously entertaining, and may be viewed at MSNBC's website. While we have no qualms about using "Graveyard of Progress" as a metonym for the Republican Party (they continually profess their hatred and disgust for progressive values, after all) we generally refer to Republicans as Republicans, and try to avoid derogatory language as much as possible, because petty insults and name calling typically end up turning into distractions.

Representative Darrell Issa would do well to learn that lesson - and Chris Matthews, who has a history of denigrating other people, would do well to follow his own advice regularly and consistently.