Wag the Dog: Lipstick Piggery

From Joe Klein at Time:

"Lipstick Piggery
The John McCain campaign is so, so upset that Barack Obama said that McCain's efforts to camouflage his own policies is "like putting lipstick on a pig." I am sure that there is no cynicism involved here. I am certain that Steve Schmidt and his band of merry men--and they are, almost exclusively, men--are deeply offended, in their feminist souls, by what they perceive as a glancing reference to Sarah Palin's lipstick on a pit bull line in her acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention.

I am certain this has nothing to do with diverting attention from matters of actual substance. That's why Matt Drudge and the New York Post have made it their lead items. I am equally certain that my colleagues in the media, especially the geniuses who populate cable news, will find this far more important than, say, McCain's and Obama's respective positions on the energy bill--which contains crucial tax credits for alternative energy programs--now being considered in the Congress. (Hint: McCain opposes the bill because it would close tax loopholes for oil companies, a tax "increase" of the sort that he has pledged to never, ever support.)"