Getting to the meat of oft-heard political jab

WASHINGTON -- From folksy Texans to today's presidential candidates, the line about putting "lipstick on a pig" has been a time-honored and bipartisan weapon in the political arsenal.

Democrat Jim Hightower, then Texas' agriculture commissioner, used the phrase in 1986 when he lashed out at Ronald Reagan's farm-credit policies: "It's like putting lipstick on a pig," he said. "You can't hide the ugliness." Torie Clarke, a Republican and a former Defense Department spokeswoman, partly entitled her how-to book on surviving spin Lipstick on a Pig.

Vice President Cheney criticized Democrat John Kerry's national security proposals in the 2004 campaign using the same line. So did Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., as he attacked Republicans' Social Security proposals in 2005.

Fast-forward to Wednesday, when "lipstick on a pig" became central to the increasingly nasty presidential race between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain. McCain charged Obama with sexism, saying Obama's use of the line jabbed at GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. The Alaska governor said during her acceptance speech last week that "lipstick" was the only difference between hockey moms such as herself and a pit bull.

Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a political scientist at the University of Southern California, said "lipstick on a pig" is a cousin of another old chestnut, the one about making a "silk purse out of a sow's ear."

"It means taking something that you can't change — that's a negative — and putting the best spin on it," Jeffe said. "It has nothing to do with sexism."

Political analysts said the flap is further evidence that Palin's presence on the Republican ticket has literally altered the terms of the presidential race.

"It reflects the fact that we're in a general election that is incredibly close — and the women's vote matters completely," said Carol Hardy-Fanta, director of the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts in Boston.