By Ben Cohen

There was an interesting debate between MSNBC host Rachel Maddow and David Frum last night about the tone of discourse in American politics.

Frum is a decent man, and has always sought to debate seriously with people, and I thought that he represented himself well against Maddow. Frum accused the MSNBC host of injecting sarcasm in her reporting, telling her she was part of the problem in American politics.

Maddow is ferociously smart, and defended herself against Frum's charges with intelligence and dignity. She told him that drawing equavalencies between her jokes and Republican smear tactics was not fair, and sarcasm was merely a way of disseminating information in a different way. It was a very interesting back and forth, and both parties made excellent points. Frum accepted Republican culpability in the terrible current political climate, and Maddow was gracious in giving Frum a lot of time to make his point (a rare thing in the soundbyte media era). Watch for yourself below: