What Does "Idiot" Mean?

I found this article rather exasperating:

If a male candidate calls a female candidate "an idiot," does that make him a sexist? What if a woman calls another woman "an idiot"?

Frankly, I'm guessing a lot of candidates think their opponents are idiots, especially this close to the election. They just refrain from saying it publicly.

Larry Brown was not so discreet.

The Las Vegas city councilman, after a joint appearance with Assemblywoman Valerie Weber, his opponent in the race for a County Commission seat, answered a question from a Las Vegas Sun reporter, and now Weber is assailing him as a sexist.

Let's put it in context.

The two appeared on KLVX-TV, Channel 10, on Oct. 16 and were given the chance to ask one question of the other.

Brown said he didn't have a question for her.

Watching from home, I took it as a put-down, an implication she wasn't worthy of questioning. He now says it was a strategy. He didn't want to use a question to beat up on her, plus she has a tendency not to answer the question, so he didn't want to give her an opportunity to go off on a tangent. He wasn't being disrespectful, he insists.

The question she asked of him was convoluted but boiled down to: How do you explain your failure to bring a major sports team to Las Vegas?

After saying her premise was "fraught with mistakes," he basically said it's too early for a major sports team because the local population isn't large enough.

I thought it wasn't fair to blame Brown especially because the biggest cheerleader for a sports team and an arena has been Mayor Oscar Goodman. Brown has cautioned against using tax dollars to build an arena.

But here's the kicker. When the Las Vegas Sun asked Brown about Weber's question, he called it "a goofball question" and then added, "I felt like saying: You're an idiot."

He didn't say that directly to Weber, a GOP assemblywoman for six years. He didn't say it on air. He said it to a reporter with a tape recorder.

When Weber read the quote in Tuesday's newspaper, she was stunned.

"I've been in public office for six years. Being called an idiot is hurtful, dismissive and disrespectful," she said. "I felt it was a tone of hatefulness toward women and he was being misogynistic."

Brown insisted he was referring to the question she asked, not calling her an idiot.

"Name calling is not part of my politics," he said.

I think Valerie Weber is too much the wilting flower here. Sexism, however unattractive, is not a crime. Not only does Larry Brown have the right to call her an idiot if he chooses to, but as a political candidate, maybe even an affirmative duty to call her an idiot, once again, should he choose to do so. Political debate doesn't always have to be civil. Civility can mask the failure to speak the truth and better that civility be sacrificed than the truth.

And heck, Brown didn't even say Weber was an idiot, only that he thought about calling her an idiot. Thought crime is not a crime in America. Flinging inflammatory insults is often not the best way to wage a campaign, but there are exceptions. It's the candidate's call - no one else's.