At this point in the election cycle, the sad objective unraveling of the once proud wire service would be comical were it not so potentially damaging to the Obama campaign.

Although I'm not sure I can muster any more incredulity at the AP's newfound partisan hackery, let me address tonight's hatchet job courtesy of Nedra Pickler.

By now, I'm sure almost everyone is familiar with the McCain camp's "mock outrage" over Barack's comments today lampooning the McCain/Palin ticket for attempting to dress up and resell the same old tired George W. Bush/Republican Party economic policies.

To wit, Sen. Obama stated:

"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."

"We've had enough of the same old thing."

The McCain camp immediately responded with the type of dishonorable distortion to which we have all become so sadly accustomed--even setting up a ridiculous "Truth Squad" conference call to state the following:

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.

So, almost immediately, all respectable media outlets slammed McCain for attempting to play the gender card and gin up fake controversy.  The McCain camp knows exactly to what Sen. Obama was referring.  The McCain camp knows that their response is disingenuous, at best, and dishonorable, at worst.

Jake Tapper at ABC, Chuck Todd at NBC & Marc Ambinder at The Atlantic all called McCain out for the dishonest phony outrage.

Tapper, also noting that McCain himself used the same expression when referring to Sen. Clinton's health care plan, stated:

The inaugural conference call of what the McCain-Palin campaign is calling the "Palin Truth Squad" addressed Obama's remark.

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

Chuck Todd stated:

But when you read Obama's quote above, it's pretty clear that the "lipstick" remark wasn't directed to Palin at all. And the Obama campaign fired back at what it called McCain's "increasingly dishonorable campaign."

Ambinder wrote--in an article titled "Obama Did Not Call Sarah Palin A Pig" no less:

The McCain campaign has little respect for Obama, but they don't think he is stupid. And the only way one can conclude that Obama meant to refer to Gov. Sarah Palin as a pig is to have concluded that Obama is as dumb as a doornail.

It's sad and pathetic enough that as the nation is bogged down in two wars, dealing with a tanking economy and a mounting mortgage crisis that the McCain campaign would repeatedly engage in these disgraceful, dishonorable games--and that's exactly all it is--distracting games; and I won't even touch on the irony of all this nonsense wrapped up in a pretty little "Country First" bow.

However, despite all credible news organizations debunking this frivolous gamesmanship, enter AP stage right-wing to allow Nedra Pickler to wield their considerably partisan ax.   Pickler's take is a bit different, of course.  After channeling a psychic to divine unstated intentions, she writes:

"You can put lipstick on a pig," he said to an outbreak of laughter, shouts and raucous applause from his audience, clearly drawing a connection to Palin's joke even if it's not what Obama meant. "It's still a pig. You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change. It's still going to stink after eight years."

McCain's campaign called the comments "offensive and disgraceful" and said Obama owes Palin an apology.

That article will run in countless newspapers tomorrow.  It will be available to anyone that goes to Yahoo or countless other websites.  I'm literally beyond words for the disgrace that has become the Associated Press.

The deck is stacked.  The only thing to do is give money and/or time in an attempt to simply overpower the odds.  I'm giving another $50.  Unfortunately, it's all I can spare at the moment.  Keep up the good work folks; we need to simply overwhelm these people.