O'Reilly - Guttersnipes and other enemies

Over at Tom Tomorrow's place, Greg Saunders has the best reaction I have read so far to Bill O'Reilly's soon-to-appear (oh, please, please, please) Enemies List. I hope he will forgive me for reprinting it in full.

Once again, a conservative rant is spreading throughout the liberal blogosphere and I’m more interested in word choice. In this case, it’s Bill O’Reilly’s McCarthyite rant against his enemies and his use of the word “guttersnipes”.

What is a guttersnipe?? I just assumed it was one of those made-up conservative insults like “assclown” or “crapweasel”, but it actually appears in the dictionary :

gut·ter·snipe n. : a child who spends most of his time in the streets especially in slum areas (Synonym: street urchin)

So when Bill O’Reilly is trying to find term to smear his enemies, this is what he compares them to :

I know conservatives don’t care about the poor, but when did poverty become an insult to these people?

Well said, Greg.

Is it too much to hope, I wonder, that I could get on the Enemies List? What do you say, Bill? I am your enemy. I genuinely dislike you. I don't like the things you say. I don't like the way you look or sound. If I could be in the same room with you, I would probably hate the way you smell.

Come on, Bill. Isn't that enough to get me on the list? Pretty please?