By Gene Lyons

Since the election, Barack Obama apparently doesn’t care whom he offends. In an interview with ABC’s Barbara Walters, the president-elect insulted her dog, a Havanese named “Cha Cha.”

“It’s like a little yappy dog?” Obama asked. “It, like, sits in your lap and things? It sounds kind of like...a girly dog.”

Never mind that our normally articulate leader sounds as if he’s, like, seen too many “Beavis and Butthead” episodes; he speaks for men everywhere. A Havanese is one of those shrill, rodent-like creatures a certain kind of woman likes to carry around in her purse and baby-talk.

Cha-Cha, Boo-Boo, Tu-Tu, the names alone make you want to light out for the territory like Huckleberry Finn.

Ignoring wife Michelle’s admonition that he lives in “a house full of girls,” Obama announced, “We’re gonna have a big, rambunctious dog.”

Excellent. In the spirit of Christmas, then, a bit of unsolicited advice. See, like most newspaper columnists, I know a little bit about many things, but not very much about anything. About dogs, however, my expertise is renowned for several blocks around. Which is apparently how I came to consult with Hillary Clinton about choosing a White House dog – the only time anybody named Clinton ever asked my advice about anything.

Back then, our Little Rock home was about six blocks from Hillary’s mother’s. One afternoon in 1997, the first lady showed up at our door with her Secret Service entourage wanting to talk dogs.