BOSTON -- Vice President Dick Cheney cast an obscenity at a Democratic senator on the Senate floor. Whoopi Goldberg got raunchy talking about President Bush at a Democratic fund-raiser. Teresa Heinz Kerry accused a reporter of misquoting her and suggested that he "shove it."

About once a week lately, it seems, someone involved in politics is saying something coarse to or about someone else. But is there anything new about this? Or are we just noticing more because the 24-hour news cycle keeps recycling the clips?

There is no doubt that vulgarity and invective are time-honored in American politics. The nascent post-Revolution press and political class regularly accused electoral opponents of lying, thievery and debauchery, and those white men in smoke-filled rooms who used to decide presidential nominations were not known for delicate vocabularies. The Civil War raised the coarseness of political discourse to a whole new level.

In recent years, however -- with the advent of political consultants, public relations handlers and talking points -- it's become relatively rare to hear politicians or those supporting them to publicly verge into vulgarity. When they do, how much it matters is itself a matter of heated debate.

Vanessa Kerry, Sen. John F. Kerry's daughter, was near tears yesterday as she described the fallout from her stepmother's comment to a reporter. A Harvard third-year medical student, she insisted that the mini-uproar was a media-driven attempt to create controversy.

"This is a woman who grew up in a dictatorship [Mozambique] and loves this country," she pointed out, a fact that Heinz Kerry has said is partially responsible for her love of speaking her mind.

Vanessa's sister Alexandra, a filmmaker, agreed. As a young voter just getting into politics, she said she is "confused" and "saddened" by what she characterized as misdirected media coverage. She understands that everyone in politics is subject to intense scrutiny but insisted that when Cheney said "not a nice thing," there was not as much of a flap.

At last night's convention session, 12-year-old Ilana Wexler, who founded "Kids for Kerry," was loudly cheered when she said she wanted a national No-Name-Calling Day. Cheney, she said, had used a "very bad" word on the Senate floor recently. "Kids need positive role models in politics, and our vice-president deserves a long 'Time Out,'" she said

Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie said it was important to "distinguish between a one-on-one situation and a public forum." When Cheney told Sen. Patrick Leahy to commit an anatomically impossible act, that was a private remark, Gillespie said, but when Goldberg and other celebrities at a Kerry fund-raiser reportedly called President Bush a "liar," a "cheap thug'' and "a killer," that crossed the line, he said.

In a session with reporters earlier this month, James Johnson, who conducted the search for Kerry's running mate, said he thinks even good motives are increasingly twisted in today's political climate.

When Kerry attempted to talk to Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain about "restoring civility" to the political process, Johnson said, it was interpreted as Kerry's offering McCain the Democratic ticket's vice-presidential spot.

It used to be the case that when politicians on opposite sides of the aisle, such as the late Democratic House Speaker Tip O'Neill and Republican President Ronald Reagan, sparred all day, they could still keep company after hours -- sharing a few drinks, a few laughs and even a few off-color comments about their fellow politicians.