I think he is being criticized for using abbreviated language. The full word is “Smart-asses”.
During the 1940 and 1950 the conservatives sometimes derogatorily referred to the “smart” people who cottoned up to the Stalinist as the “intelligentsia”, for example Adlai Stevenson was called an “Egghead”. Hiss and a great many other traitors and “Fellow Travelers” (e.g., Mrs. Roosevelt) were “The Intelligentsia” because they acted as though they knew how to change the world for the better.
HOPE AND CHANGE IS NOT NEW
“Ironically, ..... Lenin is famous for his caustic remark that “[the] intelligentsia is not the ‘brain of the nation’, it is the ‘feces of the nation’”. Wikipedia
Incidentally do you think Obama has given Bill Ayers the franchise to provide the Muslims with the American Flags to burn.
I have often wondered where the muslims get so many American flags.