The Newsroom

Try as I have, I still can't keep my dog from occasionally pooping on the carpet. My election season parallel are candidates who can't help themselves when it comes to last-minute manipulation of the media.

We'll start with Tim Prince, whose organization sent out a press release last night revealing and confirming through "multiple sources" that Jerry Lewis - his opponent - is illegally registered to vote because, gasp, he doesn't use his formal name, Charles Jeremy Lewis. "The revelation comes during a year when the Congressman exceeded the million dollar mark in legal fees defending against subpoenas related to an ongoing Justice Department and federal grand jury investigation into his use of earmarks to benefit contributors, lobbyists and defense contractors," the Prince campaign writes.

Hand out the pooper scoopers, too, to the Republican-dominated Fontana City Council, which used this week's meeting to slam Democrats, including Congressman Joe Baca. I can't even count how many rules of protocol and governance this violates, but how about the most obvious one - that councilman John Roberts is opposing Baca in Tuesday's election.

We got taken at our sister paper in Ontario by a bogus letter-writing campaign aimed at the incumbent mayor of Upland; someone else in Upland this week sent us a copy of an apparent anti-Obama mailer with racial overtones; and just today, one of our editors received a hit piece on David Dreier too silly to even go into.

At least my dog knows when he's been bad. Then, too, he does try to eat his own poop, for whatever that's worth.