the twilight zone.

Thank GOD for Steve Benen's article today. He echoes a feeling I've had, a perspective I was beginning to feel lonely in having. It's been festering this entire election period, but only really hit the ground running with my introduction to Sarah Palin. My sentiment, his sentiment, is this:

"It's honestly like being stuck in a 'Twilight Zone' episode in which reality has no meaning at all."

He's specifically referring to the latest, the Republicans' charges of sexism towards Obama's "lipstick-on-a-pig" comment. This assertion is coming from the party that wants to deny women the right to choose. The right to equal pay. And, if I may cite that WMC video again, the party whose broadcasting representatives have said things like:

"A ho is a ho."
"I always use the line, you get one shot at a facelift; if it doesn't work, let it go."
"You all saw the famous photo from the weekend of Hillary looking so haggard and what, looking like 92 years old. If that's the face of experience, I think it's going to scare away a lot of Independent voters in the end." (said by the always precious Michelle Malkin)
"Men won't vote for Hillary Clinton because she reminds them of their nagging wives."
"When Barack Obama speaks, men hear 'Take off for the future', and when Hillary Clinton speaks, men hear 'Take out the garbage!'"
"When she raises her voice, and when a lot of women do, it reaches a point where every husband in America has heard it at one time or another." (Pat Buchanan)
"When she reacts to Obama, she gives him the look, looking like every man's first wife outside of probate court."
"That is so perfect. When she comes on television, I involuntarily cross my legs." (Tucker Carlson, in response to the Hillary nutcracker)
"Men are depressed, and it's their own fault, because men are allowing women to take over the world."
"We have the hammer, Tom Delay, and now we have the Wicked Witch of the West, Nancy Pelosi."
"You get a woman in the oval office, the most powerful person in the world, what's the downside?" -"You mean besides the PMS and the moodswings, right?"

This is coming from the party whose current presidential nominee volunteered his wife to compete in a topless contest:

"I was looking at the Sturgis schedule, and noticed that you had a beauty pageant, so I encouraged Cindy to compete," McCain told an audience at the rally. "I told her [that] with a little luck, she could be the only woman to serve as both the First Lady and Miss Buffalo Chip."

He also makes rape jokes:

"Did you hear the one about the woman who is attacked on the street by a gorilla, beaten senseless, raped repeatedly and left to die?"

And doesn't mind sexism towards liberals:

When asked, "How do we beat the bitch?" He replied, "That's an excellent question."

His pet name for his wife is "cunt":

Cindy McCain, John’s wife, made the statement that John’s hair was getting a little thin, to which he replied, “At least I don’t plaster on makeup like a trollop, you cunt!”

But dude, he's really just HONEST about women:

McCain said women need more “training and education” instead of fair pay legislation.

And his adviser has figured out what's wrong with Hillary:

Her problem is she’s Hillary Clinton. And some women, by the way, are named [bitch], and it’s accurate.

Disgusted yet? How about this clip, from the always lovable Bill O'Reilly. You know it's bad when even Tucker Carlson comes off looking like an uber-liberal feminist:

Quote: "She was 5'2, 105 pounds, wearing a miniskirt and a halter top with a bare midriff. Now again, there you go. So every predator in the world is gonna pick THAT up at 2 in the morning." (in reference to Jennifer Moore, an 18-year-old woman who was raped and killed in 2006)

This all brings me up to today. When Obama said, "Let's just list this for a second. John McCain says he's about change, too. Except -- and so I guess his whole angle is, "Watch out, George Bush, except for economic policy, health-care policy, tax policy, education policy, foreign policy, and Karl Rove-style politics. We're really gonna shake things up in Washington." That's not change. That's just calling some -- the same thing, something different. But you know, you can -- you know, you can put lipstick on a pig; it's still a pig."

Supposedly, he's calling Palin a pig! Because of the lipstick! And any lipstick reference is targeted towards her, cause she called herself a PITBULL with lipstick! HOW DARE HE!

Except...putting lipstick on a pig is a very common expression. Obama further elaborated his point by saying, "You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called 'change,'" Obama continued, "it's still gonna stink after eight years. We've had enough of the same old thing! It's time to bring about real change to Washington. And that's the choice you've got in this election."

Oh my god, he's not only calling Palin a pig, but McCain an old fish as well! (Wait, I'm not kidding. Republicans are actually saying this.)

In fact, John McCain has used this lipstick-on-a-pig analogy himself!:

Last October, asked about Sen. Hillary Clinton's health care plan, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., was blunt. McCain said Clinton's proposal was "eerily" similar to the ill-fated plan she devised in 1993. "I think they put some lipstick on a pig," he said, "but it's still a pig." A common expression, right? McCain surely wasn't calling Clinton a pig. After all, McCain's former press secretary, Torie Clarke, wrote a book called "Lipstick on a Pig: Winning in the No-Spin Era." Elizabeth Edwards told some health journalists that McCain's health care plan was like "painting lipstick on a pig."

Thankfully, Bennen's disgust mirrors mine:

The media seems to find all of this fascinating, as if use of an old American expression, utilized by all kinds of political candidates from both parties for generations, might be some kind of sexist insult -- not when McCain used it to slam Hillary Clinton, but only when Obama used it to criticize the Republican campaign in general.

And, lastly, Obama campaign senior advisor Anita Dunn sums it up nicely:

"Enough is enough. The McCain campaign's attack tonight is a pathetic attempt to play the gender card about the use of a common analogy, the same analogy that Senator McCain himself used about Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's health care plan just last year. This phony lecture on gender sensitivity is the height of cynicism and lays bare the increasingly dishonorable campaign John McCain has chosen to run."