If you are standing up, you may want to sit down before hearing this.

Andrew Malcolm, a blogger for the Los Angeles Times Web site, wrote yesterday that Huckabee's endorsement by the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society (BASS) founder Ray Scott doesn't matter, basically because "it's fishing and who cares", to paraphrase his stuck-up "I'm from California and we're too cool for anything that doesn't happen in California" attitude (I guess nobody fishes in that coastal state).

I know some of you will be skeptical that a West coast liberal would act elitist, or would mock something like fishing that average normal people do, but I have a theory that might explain what's going on. Ready? The Los Angeles Times are a bunch of snobs.

Shocking, I know. But this is the conclusion I've reached, and I promise you it is not merely based on this single blog entry by precious Mr. "ew, warm beer and bugs!" Malcolm.  No, I now believe that there is probably a consistent, stuck-up overall 'tude at the Times.

I can see Andy and his pals sitting around reading about the endorsement, saying things like, "Fishing? Who the heck fishes? Even as the largest fishermen's group in the world, BASS is still low-brow entertainment for hicks, isn't it?"  Maybe someone choked on some brie while laughing at the strange inclinations of the unwashed, beer-swilling masses. Apparently, it hasn't occurred to the Times that Michigan, being right beside a great big LAKE, might have some citizens who are interested in fishing. Or that the difficulties facing the Michigan fishing industry might make people inclined to listen if one candidate is endorsed by the largest fishermen's organization in the world. Funny that a paper based in California, which in case you didn't know is right beside a big body of water (which is where fish live, in case anyone from the Times is reading this), would be so condescending about the kinds of folks who like fishing.

Hey Andy? That sushi you and your chique liberal friends love so much? It's fish, Andy. FISH. Someone somewhere probably had to go fishing for it -- maybe in a great big boat, with nets, but it's still a type of fishing, Andy. And the folks working on those great big boats that catch fish so snobs like you can suck down your dainty sushi? Those folks aren't very clean when they work, and they smell kinda bad. They also probably like beer. And they probably hate stuck-up elitist liberal intellectuals like you, Andy.