you want vulgarity, gerson?

Michael Gerson is doing Republican Senator Norm Coleman's work by pointing out that Democratic Senate candidate for Minnesota Al Franken uses dirty works in his comedy and wrote a piece in Playboy a few years ago called "Porn-O-Rama." Gerson calls "Porn-O-Rama" "the Federalist Papers of lifestyle liberalism."

Hey Gerson, that's pretty funny for a non-comedian. But Gerson can't be as stupid as he lets on in this column. He must have heard of satire and the idea of saying things that are outrageous and untrue in the name of getting a laugh.

He also criticizes Franken for using dirty words and calling Ari Fleischer a "chimp" and Karl Rove "human filth."

But Gerson, if you want vulgarity you don't have to look to Hollywood or even Minnesota. You can just look at Republican Washington.

Let's start at the top - Bush and Cheney referring to a New York Times reporter as a "major league asshole." Cheney telling Senator Patrick Leahy to "go fuck yourself" - not on HBO, but on the Senate floor.

You want name calling? The Republican punditocracy is addicted to it - and so are many elected Republicans. Rush Limbaugh is far from alone in calling people "feminazis" for example. How many MORE Republicans will we have to hear "accidentally" refer to Barack Obama as "Osama"?

I could go on but I don't have the energy. And let us not forget perhaps the worst obscenity perpetrated in the name of the American people, the idea that torture is an acceptable tool in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

There's your real obscenity, Michael Gerson. The politics and name-calling of the right wing of the American body politic.