An offender for a word

Rich Lowry notes the screwy turn the Allen/Webb campaign has taken over whether Allen, 20 years ago used the term "nigger." (I assume this is the "n-word" they refer to.) Has politics sunk to this?

Isaiah 29:

For the terrible one is brought to nought, and the scorner is consumed, and all that watch for iniquity are cut off:

That make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of nought.

Therefore thus saith the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob, Jacob shall not now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax pale.