Ok, so when they first came out, the tea baggers used the url

[LaydeeBug]

www.teabagparty.org.

That site has since been taken down, but can we prove that the tea baggers started their own moniker? I am almost positive I was getting my car washed and they had Faux News on and there were two people on there, a man and a woman, and they were all "We're tea baggers and we're gonna send tea bags to DC to let them know of our disapproval". I remember looking around to see if anyone else thought it was hilarious, but I was in a room with much, much older folk and they didn't get it.

What I wouldn't give for that clip. (except a trip to Fox News, because my blood pressure can't take that shit right now)

Here's a lil something...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/09/rachel-maddow-ana-marie-c_n_185445.html

[KansDem]

1. It just shows what nitwits they are...

A 30-second Google search will reveal the etymology of the term "teabagging." But, one supposes Teabaggers are information illiterate.

Their "outrage" and being called "Teabaggers" would be hilarious if they weren't so pathetic...

[johnd83]

2. I think teabagger was originally used by someone making fun of them...

but they didn't get it and kept the name. It is amazing so many people would choose a name that anyone under 35(ish?) finds hilarious for its original meaning. I think the teaparty should call themselves "groupthinkers" because that is all they do.

[LaydeeBug]

3. That's not so...THEY identified themselves as such. nt

[JHB]

4. If you need an authoritative source, how about Fox's Cavuto:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/2009/05/20/score-one-for-tea-baggers/

Score One for the Tea Baggers

By Neil Cavuto
Published May 20, 2009
FoxNews.com

Score one for the tea baggers. Those silly folks with their silly protests and their often silly signs and silly outfits and silly rants. Who's silly now?

The folks laughing at them? Or, in California, the elected leaders who now clearly have to answer to them?

Leaders who pushed more taxes. And they said, "bag it." Leaders who pushed for minimal spending cuts. And they said, "bag it." Leaders who teed up their biggest doomsday and warned that if budget resolutions weren't approved their state would go under. And they said, "risk it."

Not bad for a group of silly protesters who turned out to be not so silly, but so mad they not only woke up a state — I think they're waking up a nation.

Four months after the inauguration. Didn't waste much time.

[LaydeeBug]

6. Oh, Oh, Oh, OH, How truly effing amazing!!!!

Oh thank you.

The Baggers will *hate* the truth.

[JHB]

9. I pointedly give two reasons for using "Teabaggers"

1) It's their original name for themselves, before they were clued in about that other meaning. Hey, that other one isn't part of my world either, so no harm no foul about not knowing. But you don't get to rewrite history. You don't get to pull the old Soviet trick and then call me "communist".

2) The patriots in Boston in 1773 destroyed valuable property of a corporation so well-connected to the government that it prompted legislative retaliation and a military crackdown. And that night there was a very real possibility that they would be met with force in defense of the property.

Compared to that, the Teabaggers are kids playing dress-up. Their protests have never been in any real danger, and they certainly haven't stood up to any actual tyranny.

[LaydeeBug]

10. absolutely true, and so well said. nt

[csziggy]

5. The Wayback Machine has a capture of them on April 17, 2009

http://web.archive.org/web/20090417044827/http://www.teabagparty.org/

Page title is "The New American Tea Bag Party: Tax Protest for Busy People".

[LaydeeBug]

7. This is so great. Thank you. nt

[hootinholler]

8. All the proof I need

[4bucksagallon]

11. Yep their original site had them featured with T'Bags hanging from their 3 cornered hats.

If I remember correctly. Try looking through google archives and if it was so there should still be a hint of it somewhere. If I find the time I will do a search for you. There is this I found, but it's not what I was looking for.
"Per the New York Post, "Tens of thousands of protesters -- some dressed in colonial wigs with tea bags hanging from their eyeglasses -- staged boisterous protests modeled after the Boston Tea Party all around the country yesterday, rallying against financial bailouts and the Obama administration's tax and spending plans."
http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2009/04/16/4433085-tea-ed-off-yesterdays-tea-parties