Rep Anthony Weiner is learning something important about the media.

It takes a certain type of woman to set his heart a-Twitter.

Rep. Anthony Weiner follows only a select 198 of his nearly 49,000 Twitter fans -- and a surprising number of them are total babes.

Yesterday, outside his DC office, the model-loving, married congressman testily refused to talk about the pretty women he's following.

His refusal has had the opposite effect that he imagined. Weinergate has jumped into the mainstream with the Today show picking it up this morning.

Meanwhile, across town, Sarah Palin demonstrates not just an understanding of the media, but skill in manipulating it to her ends. She can see revenge from her house...

There is nothing the U.S. media wants more than something it thinks it can't have. Hence the power of news leaks that manipulate the thrust of their initial presentation. Hard-to-get is a rigid rule of human behavior. Ask any teenage boy or girl.

And there are few things more sweet to Palin and her fervent supporters cheering their TV sets this week than the image of a hungry know-it-all "lamestream media" caravan of 15 or more vehicles traipsing along behind her red-white-and-blue bus enroute to they-know-not-where to do they-know-not-what.

To make it worse, each one of the frustrated, confused chasers knows that Fox News' Greta Van Susteren is....
...riding along with the not-yet-and-possibly-never Republican presidential candidate, filing exclusive conversations for her audience to gobble up that only enhance Palin's already million-dollar value to FNC. Can you hear the teeth grinding? While Palin smiles and waves away?

The day's best line came from a CBS News producer who tried to claim that the lack of information from Palin's lumbering bus was endangering the dozen competing media vehicles trailing behind, uninvited.

So when you run for public office, remember to stiff-arm them when you need them most, and embrace them when you like them least.

One more thing to know, although this will not be in your control--when you are in trouble and the media is hounding you, pray to the demon Gods that they will be distracted by some other scandal.

Barney Franks is cruising Boston right now, looking for a virgin he can sacrifice...