Eleventh Commandment of Politics (dead woman or live man)(1974)

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

I googled the phrase and found this, from TIME magazine archives:
...
...
_http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,945012,00.html_ 
(http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,945012,00.html) 
 
Old Axioms
Monday, Oct. 21, 1974 
The prize for cheap shot of the week must go to the Washington  Star-News for 
the lead on its story about the political fallout of Congressman  Wilbur 
Mills' gamy brush with police in Washington (see THE NATION). The article  began: 
"Never get caught in bed with a dead woman or a live man. — Old Political  
Axiom." It went on to say that Mills "has not violated, so far as is known, that  
guiding proverb." In fact, as the paper's editors were surely aware, first  
reports concerned booze rather than sex. There were three women and an other 
man  in the Mills car, and all were both living and clothed. With its leering 
winks,  the Star-News stomped on a variety of old journalistic axioms about fair 
play  and good taste.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org