Does this mean "garlic eater" is off limits?

They've gotta be kidding - the wingnuts are saying lib'ruhls hate Alito because of his ethnicity!

Earlier today on Fox News, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), a member of the Judiciary Committee, followed Matt Drudge’s lead and implied that opponents of Samuel Alito’s nomination may be motivated by Alito’s ethnicity. He warned senators “to be very careful here,” because a vote against Alito would be “held against them” by Italian-Americans.

Does "Italian-American" even matter as a descriptor anymore, if the referent isn't to a restaurant?