Gabe is our liberal blogger.

The mainstream media is irritably shaking in its loafers this week as it marks nearly a month since Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin has spoken to the press. In Washington, the rule is that when you host a party, you remember to feed the press. The McCain campaign seems to have forgotten this oral law as it dangles its vice presidential nominee over the heads of print and television reporters eager to get a comment out of the Alaskan governor before the party ends on November 4th.

Palin’s U.N. debut on Tuesday was threatened by a press pool more hostile than Iranian president Mahmud Ahmadinejad. TV and print journalists from the top five television networks warned the McCain campaign it would boycott covering Palin’s meetings with foreign leaders and diplomats if they were not invited to the “pool spray”–the regular gathering of photographers and reporters on the sideline of such events. In the end, TV and print journalists did participate in the sprays, but received no comment from the governor.

Later in the day, NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell appeared on The Rachel Maddow Show likening the restrictive nature to how the press is treated in such countries like Syria, Sudan and North Korea.

The testiness has even even irked Campbell Brown, the often-reserved CNN anchor who gave a blunt rant on the McCain’s “chauvinistic treatment” of Palin and called for a “Free Sarah Palin” movement.

For our sake, let’s hope this imbroglio gets physical. I want to see Larry King put on his boxing gloves against John McCain. Even better, Katie Couric vs. Sarah Palin.

Read his conservative counterpart.