I guess now we’re all supposed to understand that Rush Limbaugh was “just making a joke” and the real misogynists are those nasty liberals. Michelle Malkin uses this point to castigate President Obama for calling Ms. Fluke, as a means of “inserting himself” into the fray, and then goes on to describe how nasty liberals have called her and other conservative women horrible names which she claims are worse than being called a slut, but actually aren’t, at least not in my nomenclature. Being called a “female impersonator” is petty and, I’m sure, hurtful, but it’s a different epithet hurled at somebody in a much more powerful position than Ms. Fluke.

I think I’d be pretty safe in saying that Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Boxer have been called horrible things by misguided people on the right. I don’t have time to assemble the litany Malkin does, as I don’t have a staff of assistants. But–my God, people–have you not seen what commenters have called both Hilary Clinton and Sarah Palin alike?

Let’s suffice to say that I’d prefer a political discourse where–let’s just get wild and crazy here for a second–we don’t use ad hominem at all, let alone the basest and most vulgar forms?

As to Rush, if that was a joke, grow the hell up, dude. That stuff is unattractive at best and evil at worst in 16 year-old men, let alone old farts like us who ought to know better.

What I find utterly shocking is the blatant racism directed at Malkin in the ad hominem attacks on her, and which she doesn’t seem to acknowledge as such. I pretty much have never agreed with her, but there is a lot in the vitriol directed at her that occurs because she hasn’t been everybody’s compliant little Asian doll. While she is a public figure, and those of us who put ourselves out there know that we’re going to get our licks, racism and sexism should named for what they are. She deserves to be able to express her ideas without having her humanity and identity degraded.

And while Malkin wants to castigate Barack Obama, the truth is, he’s always been a complete gentlemen as far as I can tell. I was a Hilary voter until the end of the deal, and even so, I had to admit that even when he was criticizing her politics, he treated her with decency and respect. So, too, John McCain, even though his personal life hasn’t always been so nicey-nice.