Sick Humor? Poor Taste? Assholery?

I believe we have all heard about the damned ape joke. If told by a 21 year old frat boy half-tanked in a bar...tasteless. If you were drinking along with him: possibly funny. The kid told a shocking joke, big deal. When told by a US senator in his 50's, a man with power over the lives of women: sick, tasteless, and in no way amusing. When twenty-two years later, that man with a long history of mean-spirited misogynistic behavior, and a voting record that shows he clearly thinks women are second-class citizens, and is now running for president...horrifying.