Progressive vs Liberal

Why is it such a dirty word?

In the 2008 primary election between President Obama and Hillary Clinton she ran as "progressive candidate". In politics, we hear over and over again democrats calling themselves progressives and many people can't tell the difference between die hard democrats and progressives. Both President Obama and Hillary Clinton were members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus within the Senate. However this group of politicians are seen and leaning very heavily left however they always still use the term progressive to describe this ideal of the outreach of government to solve the problems of the over worked, over taxed, over stressed working guy. However many in the media and on Capitol Hill refer to these men and women as Liberals which always sounds like a dirty word when they say it.
I'm not sure when the idea that the term liberal meant links to communism, extreme government oversight, and radical Federalist belief in government as the solution to all problems of America. The movement began in the early 1920's and has been raving every since. In right wing media you never really hear the term progressive to describe Progressives and Democrats it is shouted at them and used in every election to demean the Democratic and Progressive parties of America. Which one is more left wing? Do the ideals seem that different?
Why is it a dirty word well here are my thoughts on that one: The term Progressive has respect, it has idealism and it appeals to nearly every American. The reason it is seen this way is because of Theodore Roosevelt. According to the yearly study determined by a non-partisan institution Teddy Roosevelt is the 2nd best President in our history. (You can view this to the left under the link "Who's the worst President?".) He was the reason Progressivism flourished in this country, during the times the government had to declare a state of emergency due the economy crashing in 1929, people wanted and needed their government to step in and help them. People saw government as hope. Teddy Roosevelt also passed "The New Deal" which even to this day is seen as the most amazing step in the government helping out the "little man". In this time even this legislation is seen as government overreaching and hand-outs, since this progressive movement started flourishing among the populace of America the Republicans needed something to combat this image of a Superman government.
Since Teddy Roosevelt Republicans have opposed this movement. Republicans are all about smaller government and state's rights, they trampled all over this movement and even to this day loudly argue over many of these policies. The reason they can do this and get away with it is that Democrats themselves see it as a dirty word, they allow this name-calling to become real. Hillary Clinton also gave a speech during her campaign where she declares she is a liberal and proud to call herself that, for this move I give her credit, but she also has the reputation for being hated across the isle and she had to own this title. It gave her competition less ammo and it gave respect to the concept.
We will always see Conservative shouting down Liberals, but the ideals they are really against are the popular and life saving policies of Teddy Roosevelt and who wants to call him crazy. This viewpoint will probably never die, and Republicans will always use it to fire up the base of the party. I'll probably always wonder why this phenomenon exists in politics. I don't consider myself Progressive, but I admire the ideal and the strength of will and pure political genius which passed Teddy Roosevelt's "New Deal". However, I believe, this was in a time of dire need of the people of this country, they needed to be taken care of by our government and many people in our country still need this help. This is proven by the current recession and unemployment numbers, we still need it. I can't say that the government taking care of its people is a bad thing. This issue is respect, Progressives and Liberals need to own their titles. They need to change the way both terms are seen in this country and then maybe the opposition will turn into understanding.
Why is it a dirty word?