Style Note to A.P.: It's Not 'Tea Party Purists' -- It's 'Constitutional Conservatives'

See if you can detect the spin.

Talks are intensifying on Capitol Hill on reaching a deal on long-overdue legislation to finance the government through the end of September -- and avoid a government shutdown...

..."There's no reason why we should not get an agreement," Obama said. "We have now matched the number that the speaker originally sought. The only question is whether politics or ideology are going to get in the way of preventing a government shutdown."...

This time, it's Obama who is exuding confidence as Boehner seems hemmed in by his hard-charging class of 87 freshmen, many of whom won office with backing from tea party purists.

"Tea party purists"?

Really? So you're a purist if you demand the government stays solvent for our children and grandchildren? That it pares back the trillions in debt rung up over the last three years, which every expert -- including Obama's own deficit commission -- calls 'unsustainable' and 'catastrophic'?

Folks, this is why the AP's "news reporting" is useful only as comic relief.