You Say Tomato, I call you a reactionary

What's the deal with hyperbole when it comes to labeling the politics of the opposite side? Or your own side for that matter. I took note of this one particular night while watching Chris Matthews. He would not let the liberal talking head go on until he explained why he referred to himself and his coalition as "progressives." If I remember the quote, Matthews said something like, "Weren't they in the early 20th century?" In this post over at VC, David Bernstein, in talking about the vote against Summers, characterizes the Harvard faculty as "far left" twice in a post that's six sentences long.

I'm just wondering why every liberal continues to refer to the President as Bush or President Bush. Aren't all the creative arts people liberal? Can't we come up with some dictatorial title in honor of the Ides of March (which just passed)? Of course we can just call everyone terrorist or Islamo-fascist (I love that latter one...it has that Irish-American ring to it).