One of the unwritten rules of the newspaper business is: always employ at least one dirty-minded person on the copy desk.

This isn't difficult, since we journalists tend to be a foul-mouthed bunch, but it is essential because it keeps the paper from accidentally printing something nasty.

When a reporter uses the phrase "the pen is mightier than the sword," a dirty-minded copy editor will be sure to note that there's a space between the words "pen" and "is." When a reporter writes about a public meeting, a dirty-minded copy editor will watch to make sure the letter "l" hasn't been omitted from "public."

Without the firewall of a dirty-minded copy editor, all manner of lewd, crude and unintentionally funny things might end up in print.

This also can happen in politics. When a group prides itself on its narrowly defined moral uprightness, and then purges itself of anyone who doesn't meet those rigid standards, you never know what will slip out.

Take, for example, what's going on right now with America's conservative movement.

Freaked out about being out of power -- and that the man who's leading the country, President Barack Obama, is actually doing what the majority of the nation wanted him to do when they elected him -- many conservatives are planning to protest with a national "Tax Day Tea Party" on April 15, this Wednesday.

According to one Web site, rallies are being organized in Provo, St. George, and two in Salt Lake City. One of the Salt Lake City shindigs will be attended by the two Utah Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives, Rob Bishop and Jason Chaffetz, says the liberal blog ThinkProgress.org.

Taking their cue from the Boston Tea Party of 1773, when anti-British colonists dumped English tea into Boston Harbor to protest a tax levied on tea, these modern "Tea Party" organizers have encouraged followers to mail tea bags to our elected leaders.

Last week, Thomas Burr, one of the Tribune's D.C. correspondents, reported that Utah state Sen. Margaret Dayton, R-Orem, sent a packet of green tea to the White House. It probably didn't get there intact, since Capitol Police say the tea bags may trip security alarms in our post-9/11, anthrax-threat era. (The offices of both Chaffetz and Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson, Burr reported, have received "Tea Party" protest letters with the tea removed.)

Now organizing a "Tax Day Tea Party" is all well and good - free speech rocks, protest is healthy to democracy, yada, yada, yada.

But here's where my point about dirty-minded editors comes in: The act of mailing tea bags - and the shorthand for the movement as a whole - has turned "teabag" into a verb.

"Teabag the White House," declared correspondent Griff Jenkins last month on Fox News (which is zealously attaching its brand and on-air talent to Wednesday's protests). "Teabag Obama" is the name of one conservative blog. At one rally, a sign read, "Teabag the Liberal Dems before they Teabag you."

Conservatives should know, if they don't already, that "teabagging" was already a verb, for a particular sexual act. (Rent John Waters' movie "Pecker" for a detailed description.) That's why many left-of-center bloggers, plus "The Daily Show's" Jon Stewart and MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, are having a huge laugh at the right-wing's expense.

Next time, right-wingers might want to hire a consultant who could steer them clear of this kind of trouble. I hear Larry Craig's available.

Sean P. Means writes the Culture Vulture in daily blog form at blogs.sltrib.com/vulture.