These words do cause concern..this is an interesting essay on Bill Maher's use of the word...and the author ends by stating:

Someone as clever as Maher, who writes and talks for a living, also probably has other words in his vocabulary that he could use, if he needs to express his contempt for Sarah Palin—words that aren't inherently misogynistic, words that don't demean other women in the process of discussing a particular woman.