Anyone ever hear of Bushisms? That’s what makes this newest controversy so humorous:

President Bush said Monday he wasn’t trying to disparage the party now running Congress by referring to it as the “Democrat majority” – as opposed to the “Democratic majority” – in his State of the Union speech.

“That was an oversight,” Bush said in an interview with National Public Radio. “I mean, I’m not trying to needle.”

Bush’s dropping of the “ic” at the end of the word prompted grumbling by Democrats that he purposely got their name wrong.

This is not a new charge. President Reagan used to refer to the “Democrat Party.” Democratic leaders have long considered it demeaning when their suffix is omitted, and some of them figured it was no accident in a speech as highly choreographed and rehearsed as Bush’s State of the Union.

Bush said he wasn’t even aware that he had done it.

“I meant to be saying, why don’t we show the American people we can actually work together?” Bush said.

Then the president conceded: “I’m not that good at pronouncing words anyway.