In what some are already referring to as “Whoregate”. Nikki Haley, governor of South Carolina, was accidentally called a whore by her opponent in the current race to keep her job.

Vincent Sheheen, whom Haley defeated last election, and looks like she will handily beat in Red State South Carolina this time, was speaking at a campaign event.

“We’re going to win this race because we want it more,” Sheheen said to the assembled crowd of mostly Democrats. “We want it more and all we have to do is remind the people of South Carolina about the junk that has gone on the last four years. Remind them that we have a governor who has vetoed over $100 million in public education funding. She vetoed our public school teachers’ pay raises the same year she gave her own staff 25 percent pay increases.”

At this point, Sheheen got tongue-tied and made his infamous battle cry:

“That is the worst kind of politics,” Sheheen continued. “And we are gonna escort whore out the door.”

The crowd burst into laughter. Sheheen quickly corrected himself, saying, “… escort her out the door.”

Sheheen and the audience both continued to chuckle briefly. Whether it was at Sheheen’s flub or at Haley was the question.

Sheheen asked the crowd to settle down, “Think about it, y’all,” he said, seeming to want to move along with his points. “Alright, calm down out there.”

But it was Sheheen’s next sentence that a lot of people took issue with.

“Oh no, listen, you gotta tell the truth,” Sheheen said. “Think about it, we’ve got a governor who’s blocking 11 billion dollars of our own Medicaid tax money. That’s our money!”

Sheheen later explained his gaffe in an interview with a Charleston radio station.

“Sometimes when you’re speaking five to ten times a day, your words get a little bit garbled,” Sheheen said. “Uh. When they get garbled, and it does happen to me – I go back and say exactly what I meant, and you heard in that clip that I meant ‘her’ – h.e.r.”

“I can promise you I don’t use that word, the word that you people are claiming that I used,” Sheheen continued. “I don’t use it in private, I don’t use it in public — but if anybody heard wrong, and certainly my words were garbled, then you know I apologize. Because I don’t want to send that message to anybody.”

Ann Romney, wife of failed presidential candidate Mitt Romney, chimed in about the scandal.

“When I first heard about it, it hit me right in my gut,” Romney said. “My nerve endings went haywire. It’s so upsetting when you know someone can say something like that about a woman, and not have any kind of reaction. It’s so unacceptable.”

“You get so sick of saying there is bias out there,” Romney continued, “but if a Republican had said this, it would be blowing up in their face like nobody’s business.”

Nikki Haley herself concurred with Romney.

“[W]hether it was a gaffe or not, I really don’t care. The laughing afterwards was a kick in the gut. The comment that ‘sometimes you’ve gotta tell the truth,’ that was tough.”

“I thought that Ann Romney’s comments were appropriate,” Haley continued. “There’s no place in South Carolina for comments or laughter – when it comes to things like that.”

The “you gotta tell the truth” line has been characterized by some as meaning “I was only telling the truth about Nikki Haley being a whore.” It is worth noting that Sheheen did not say, “Sometimes you gotta tell the truth.” It may seem like a minor difference, but it colors his statement a particular way.

Nikki Haley has been the accused of multiple affairs in the past, including direct claims by men who say they had relationships with her, some of whom are actually Haley supporters, but were concerned that her political opponents would dig up the affair.

Whether or not people believe Sheheen was actually calling Haley a whore, or even continued to ride the comment for play after he mistakenly said it, seems to depend on which political party they vote for.