When it was revealed earlier this month that an associate of Jerry Brown had called Meg Whitman a “whore,” all hell broke loose on the California gubernatorial campaign trail, and the incident quickly overshadowed Whitman's own problems with an undocumented maid.

But the semantics of the word left some political groups wondering whether to hate or embrace the democratic candidate. California NOW (National Organization for Woman), for example, called on Brown to fire whoever said the word. But it also endorsed him.

And then a NOW official said Whitman is a whore — a “political whore.” Does that make the word any more acceptable? Our commenter du jour, Mark, wonders if there's a distinction:

So according to N.O.W. calling a woman a whore is a no-no, but adding an adjective makes it OK?

Example: “You're such a whore.” Oh, I'm sorry, I meant to say “You're such a crack whore.”

You can thus sanitize “whore” by adding any other adjective, “political,” “tired,” “old,” “insatiable,” etc.

NOW, thanks for teachable moment.

What do you think?

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