While Rome Burned...

This is what they want to talk about. Them - the news media. Left or right, it doesn't matter. They want to talk about lipstick and pigs, about sex ed law in Illinois...

I enjoy telling people that I worked as a reporter for a while before I found honest work. I say it at school board and county government meetings. People laugh, I smile.

GOP presidential candidate John McCain has used the "lipstick on a pig" phase before. So has Vice-President Dick Cheney. In the past day or so, Senator Obama used the phrase. He was pretty explicit about the fact that he was talking about John McCain's economic plan. But the McCain camp came out almost immediately with the accusation that Obama was referring to Governor Palin. And they called the remark sexist...

And now the stuffed shirts at FOX and the liberal hacks at the NY Times and the left-leaning suits at CBS & NBC all want to talk about lipstick on a pig and McCain's outrage - instead of the economy.

What could we talk about...?

The Huffington Post came up with a short list:

• We could talk about the shrinking role of the US in world affairs.
• We could talk about whether the Wall Street bank Lehman Brother is going to collapse.
• We could talk about having to bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
• We could talk about Iraq.
• We could talk about tomorrow's anniversary of 9/11.
• We could talk about rising unemployment.
• We could talk about the US relationship with Russia.
• We could talk about the OPEC meeting today where they cut production to help keep prices from going down.

There are probably a few other things. And instead we're going to talk about lipstick on a pig for a day or two.

I used to think that John McCain was an honorable man. Now I think his strategy is to tell more and more outrageous lies to keep from losing an election...