Like When Bloggers Say "Fuck"?

Conor Clarke in The Atlantic:

I have no great love for disgraced former surrogates in general or the disgraced Phil Gramm in particular. I'm actually pleased as punch to subscribe to the view that Gramm is a bumbling, out-of-touch old fool. But at some point it becomes impossible to discuss the substance of American politics -- the merits of NAFTA, the strength of the economy -- when we spend most of the day bickering over how polite the discussion needs to be. Setting aside the only-so-interesting question of whether Gramm is right about the technical definition of recession -- it's two contiguous quarters of negative growth, and we grew during the last -- does thinking exclusively about the fact he used the word "whiners" make us more or less likely to think about the actual merits of the two candidates' fiscal policies?