Obama is fond of attacking a Republican straw man opposition to pay equity for men and women. Most recently he blasted Gov. Sarah Palin: "she's opposed -- like John McCain is -- to equal pay for equal work. That doesn't make much sense to me." But an examination of Obama's Senate staff shows that he may be the one with the sexism problem. A nonpartisan group called LegiStorm posts Senate salary information online. Their findings aren't good for the Democrats.

Obama is paying women, on average, just 83 cents for every dollar the men in his office make.

Based on these calculations, Obama's 28 male staffers divided among themselves total payroll expenditures of $1,523,120. Thus, Obama's average male employee earned $54,397.

Obama's 30 female employees split $1,354,580 among themselves, or $45,152, on average.

Compare this to John McCain's Senate office:

McCain's 17 male staffers split $916,914, thus averaging $53,936. His 25 female employees divided $1,396,958 and averaged $55,878.

On average, according to these data, women in John McCain's office make $1.04 for every dollar a man makes. In fact, all other things being equal, a typical female staffer could earn 21 cents more per dollar paid to her male counterpart -- while adding $10,726 to her annual income -- by leaving Barack Obama's office and going to work for John McCain.

Facts are tricky things....