Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, was suspended for a month after refusing to apologize for making "unnecessarily insensitive and offensive" comments to a Jewish reporter by comparing him to a Nazi concentration camp guard.

According to Norm, the interesting thing is that Livingstone's defense rested on whether or not the comments truly affected the repute of the office as opposed to whether or not the comment was appropriate.

Personally, I don't like thought police legislation that creates punishments for things people say in anger, even if truly derogatory words like k*ke and n****r are used.  Very different if you are a public offical though.  There's also an argument to be made that out in the open bias is a lot easier to confront than having those feelings pushed underground.

Here's a situtation where I do think it's appropriate to take someone out of their position of authority.  In Farmers Branch, a suburb of Dallas, the police chief  told a hiring committee that he wasn't going to hire any "gooks" when discussing an applicant of Asian descent.  He claimed his actions were a mental holdover from his service in Vietnam.   He retired immediately after 30+ years of service.