It's a Spoonerism. I learned it from my mother when I was five years old. Or try "for the breast in bed, buy our baguette," which I did not learn from my mother, though she would have loved it. A language tic. Sometimes a joke, and some people just talk that way.
All by way of saying that I enjoy bashing Michele Bachmann as much as the next guy--and I really do believe she is a few lutefisks short of a smorgasbord--but mocking her for "Hoot-Smalley"--i.e., "Smoot Hawley," the tariff--is really laying it on a bit thick. For one thing, it isn't even original with her:
- A certain Mark Whittington made the blooper in a book review posted July 17, 2007 (link). It's a review of The Forgotten Man by the notorious Amity Shlaes; I don't have a copy handy so I can't check right now to see whether the error originated with her or him.
- And here's a commenter reference from February 3, 2009.
- And from a Blog called "Executive Summary" on Decembere 22, 2008.
- Here's a reference to a Hoot-Smalley Vineyard.
I must say also, however, that Rep. Bachmann might want to look further into the career of Senator Reed Smoot (R-Utah). He (sic, not Franklin Roosevelt) was indeed the (co) author of a punitive, perhaps nation-destroying tariff. And not just of "stuff." Smoot wanted restrictions on indecent books. As Ogden Nash aid:
Smite, Smoot,Now, there's a campaign that Michele Bachmann might want to get behind.
Smite for Ute.
They're smuggling smut
From Balt to Butte.
