Chuckie Schumer, The Boy Who Cried 'Extreme'!

Chuckie needs a new thesaurus:

Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer on Sunday stood by his characterization of the Tea Party movement as "extreme" -- though he was overheard on a conference call last week describing the term as a political talking point.

The New York senator, speaking on ABC's "This Week," reiterated his claim that the Tea Party is "standing in the way" of a compromise between Republicans and Democrats over a budget for the remainder of the fiscal year.

"The American people are seeing the Tea Party for what it is -- extreme," Schumer said.

He was then asked about an incident last week when, before a conference call with reporters was set to start, he was overhead telling others on the call that he uses the word "extreme" because "that's what the caucus instructed me to do the other week."

Schumer said he has no regrets.

"I have no problem with reporters hearing that," Schumer said. "The Tea Party is the group standing in the way. ... I believe they're extreme."

I have no problem with Chuckie using the term "extreme" because every time he does he weakens the impact of the word. He described the tiny budget cuts the GOP was proposing as "extreme", he describes any number of GOP politicians or candidates as "extreme", and he describes the Tea Party as "extreme". After awhile that word will no longer have any value as a political tool and instead of harming the intended target it will simply further diminish Schumer.  Win-win.