If You Had Any Doubts the “Attacks” on Palin Were Manufactured Bullshit …

Then observe this chronology.

Early today, John Fund wrote a WSJ op-ed claiming the DNC had "airdropped a mini-army of 30 lawyers, investigators and opposition researchers into Anchorage" to do oppo research. The DNC responded that this was a "flat-out absolute fabrication." Nevertheless, purportedly in response to this secret mini-army of oppo researchers, McCain’s campaign introduced a "Palin truth squad," featuring a mini-army of B-League Republican women to protect their precious Sarah Palin from evil falsehoods.

Problem is, the very first "falsehood" they tried to "rebut" is not, in fact, a falsehood at all. 

All: Please join us at 7:00pm ET for a conference call with Gov. Jane Swift, Chair of the Palin Truth Squad, to discuss Barack Obama’s "lipstick on a pig" comments today in Lebanon, VA. 

Rather, it is a completely manufactured smear, the McCain campaign claiming that when Barack Obama said of John McCain’s claim to be a maverick that  "you can’t put lipstick on a pig:"

Obama poked fun of McCain and Palin’s new "change" mantra.

"You can put lipstick on a pig," he said as the crowd cheered. "It’s still a pig."

"You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change.  It’s still gonna stink."

Of which the McCain campaign’s new "truth squad" claimed Obama was calling Sarah Palin, self-described pitbull in lipstick, a pig.

Christy’s got a run-down of how frequently people like Barack Obama and John McCain use this term–McCain even used it of Hillary Clinton’s health care plan (I understand Hillary’s been known to wear lipstick, too).

And though he propagates the suggestion that listeners might tie Obama’s comment to Palin, Jake Tapper has an otherwise damning descripton of former MA Governor Jane Swift’s pathetic attempt to spin this as an attack on Palin.

 And interestingly, the Truth Squad call was full of half-truths and statements that weren’t true at all.

Speaking on behalf of the McCain campaign, former Massachusetts Gov. Jane Swift tonight flatly stated that Obama had called Palin a pig.

"[T]he formation of the Palin Truth Squad couldn’t have happened too soon, as we saw when Sen. Obama in Lebanon, Va., this evening uttered what I can only deem to be disgraceful comments comparing our vice presidential nominee Gov. Palin to a pig," Swift said.

"Sen. Obama owes Gov. Palin an apology," she said.

Asked why she was so confident Obama was "comparing" Palin to a pig, she said Palin was the only one of the four candidates on both parties’ tickets who wears lipstick.

"She is the only one of the four candidates for president, or the only vice presidential candidate who wears lipstick," Swift said. "I mean, it seemed to me a very gendered comment."

But, Swift added, if "as part of his apology Sen. Obama wants to say, no, he was calling Sen. McCain — who is a true hero in our country — a pig, then I suppose we could wait en masse for an apology to that, as well."

It was pointed out to Swift that, after the line about the pig, Obama had said, "You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called ‘change,’ it’s still gonna stink after eight years."

Swift then suggested that Obama was calling McCain a fish.

It continues on, with Jane Swift and her entire menagerie of imagined insults. Really. It’s that stupid.

Nevertheless, McCain’s campaign no doubt believe they can have Jane Swift repeatedly summon her best imitation of outrage and use it to distract reporters from the stories about Governor Palin’s lies.

And they may be right–tune in tomorrow for an inventory of how reporters respond to McCain’s pathetic ploy. 

But understand what is going on here. The McCain campaign has staked everything on Sarah Palin and their totally revamped campaign to run as the Maverick reform team. But that’s not going to work if the press continues to call bullshit on her bridge claims–and now her pig claims.

If Sarah Palin is shown to be what she is, a fan of pork and a seemingly gleeful liar, McCain has no campaign left.  And that’s why they’ve doubled down on their lies.