Jane, you ignorant slut.

Actually, I believe that the e-mail called me a hateful slut. And it wasn’t in “Saturday Night Live”-style jest.

Then there was the woman who left a voice mail at 1:03 a.m.: “You’re such a hag according to your picture that you probably don’t have any children. You’re just jealous that she’s beautiful and you’re ugly.”

So much for John McCain’s “We’re all God’s children, and we’re all Americans.”

Scrutiny of Sarah Palin has generated some downright vicious nasties – from her fans as well as her foes.

Don’t dare raise impertinent questions about the GOP vice presidential candidate, whom the McCain campaign wants us all to treat with “deference.” The same kind of deference, I suppose, that Republicans showed to presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton.

When I wrote recently about the difficult choices Palin will have to make to balance family and White House aspirations, readers accused me of hypocrisy, misogyny, specious argumentation, vitriol and sanctimonious desperation. Others thanked me for expressing their sentiments.

The e-mails and phone calls were almost evenly split. And most on both sides raised legitimate points that should be part of the debate over who should get the most votes in November.

Why not ask Barack Obama about juggling work and family?

He has written about the angst of being away from his wife and two young daughters when he first went to Washington as a senator. As president he would have his family living with him, but he wouldn’t see them as often as in a 9-5 job. Of course, he didn’t give birth to a child five months ago, but his choice to pursue presidential ambitions tells us something about him. Individual voters should factor that into the mix of what they know and how they view him.

As for Gov. Palin, she has portrayed herself as a “hockey mom,” her party’s touting her as a “family values” paragon and her supporters are calling her a “real” person who understands real folks’ concerns. Seems like she’s opened the door to that line of questioning, as the lawyers say.

But the questions shouldn’t stop there. There’s a vast range of pertinent questions to ask.

How might she overhaul our wretchedly inadequate health insurance system? Reduce the federal deficit so that our grandchildren and hers won’t be saddled with crippling debt? Make us more energy-independent but leave our heirs a cleaner environment?

Would she close Guantanamo Bay prison? McCain has said he would.

Is waterboarding torture? McCain thinks it is.

Do her views on immigration tilt toward Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy – with whom McCain drafted comprehensive reform legislation – or toward Republican Rep. Tom Tancredo, who wants to kick them all out, including children born here, and lock down the borders?

Are her favorite Supreme Court Justices John Roberts and Samuel Alito, like McCain – or Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, like President Bush? What about pioneer Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, now retired? Or John Paul Stevens, a Republican-appointed maverick too often mislabeled a liberal?

And how might Palin exercise the main vice presidential function dictated by the Constitution: breaking tie votes in the Senate?

Since 2001, Dick Cheney has broken eight ties, the same number as Richard Nixon (1953-61), Alben Barkley (1949-53) and Thomas Marshall (1913-21), and the most since Schuyler Colfax’s 17 in 1869-73, according to the Senate Historical Office.

Cheney tipped the vote the first time in a budget dispute over billions of dollars for Medicare prescription drug coverage. In 2005 he made the difference on a spending package that, among other things, cut federal funds for child-support enforcement and increased fees for Medicaid recipients.

Would Palin have done likewise? (Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Joe Biden voted against both bills.)

Cheney’s most recent tie-breaker, in March, was “yea” to reconsider an amendment on alternative minimum tax rates.

Biden voted “no” on that one.

Yes, let’s ask both him and Palin about those issues and see which one has the better grasp.