Jefferson County GOP collecting lipstick after Obama’s remark

Local Republicans are vowing to send 1,000 tubes of lipstick to Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama in an effort to criticize him for recent comments the campaign of Republican nominee John McCain claim were a sexist attack on their vice presidential candidate.

After asserting McCain was not the candidate to bring “change” to Washington, D.C., Obama uttered the following remarks during a rally in Lebanon, Virginia earlier this week.

“That’s not change. That’s just calling the same thing something different,” said Obama. “You know, you can put lipstick on a pig - it’s still a pig.”

McCain’s campaign charged those remarks were an attack on Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, McCain’s Vice-Presidential nominee.

A similar line has been used in past speeches – prior to Palin’s acceptance of the VP slot – by numerous campaigners including former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.), former U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Col.), and McCain himself.

Some McCain supporters assert this time is different, because of recent events.

Brad Cummings, chair of the Jefferson County Republican Party, picked up this standard today, calling Obama’s comments a “thinly veiled sexist attack” on Palin. A release from the county party notes that Palin referenced ‘lipstick’ as the sole difference between a ‘hockey mom’ and a ‘bulldog’ during her speech before the Republican National Convention last week, arguing this compounds the impact of Obama’s line.

“It seems to me that Barack Obama and his surrogates want to denigrate Sarah Palin at every pass,” said Cummings, in a statement. The Democrats have been exposed for selling a false line that they support feminism. It is a double standard.”

Obama snapped back at the media coverage of the comments during another rally today, arguing it was a “made up controversy” and characterized subsequent attacks as “lies, phony outrage, and swift boat politics.”

“Sen. Obama claims today that these words are being misconstrued. But in the context of what Congressman Carnahan said earlier and Gov. Palin’s speech last week, he should have known better,” said Cummings, referencing similar ‘lipstick’ comments from U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan (D-Mo.). “The fact that he isn’t apologizing today shows his hypocrisy. After all, this is the same man who said in the primaries ‘don’t tell me that words don’t matter.’ One thing Sen. Obama and I will agree on is words do matter.”

“In response to Obama’s obsession with lipstick and abiding by the Republican tenant of giving a hand up,” the county party says they aim to collect 1,000 tubes of lipstick to send to Obama’s Chicago headquarters.