John McCain's Republican chops come under fire again this morning.

From Arianna Huffington:

At a dinner party in Los Angeles not long after the 2000 election, I was talking to a man and his wife, both prominent Republicans. The conversation soon turned to the new president. "I didn't vote for George Bush" the man confessed. "I didn't either," his wife added. Their names: John and Cindy McCain (Cindy told me she had cast a write-in vote for her husband).

The McCain campaign denies the tale, saying people should "consider the source." Huffington responded with a list of McCain's very public - and erroneous - "denials," like knowing lobbyist Vicki Iseman, not budgeting earmarks in his home state of Arizona and about trying to get up on John Kerry's democratic ticket.

If imitation is the highest form of flattery, what does that make plagiarism? We don't know, but Michael Lucas probably does, because his Barack Obama bashing column has more than a few similarities with Ann Coulter's "Throw Grandma Under A Bus," which she published on March 19, two days before Lucas' piece.

It's really quite queer.

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Drag collective The House of LeMay sent out a "press release" earlier today distancing themselves from the Eliot Spitzer whore scandal. (Just like Hillary Clinton, minus the dignity of an actual press release!)

The LeMay were worried their past political associations, like this meeting with DNC Chairman Howard Dean, may lead people to assume a Spitzer connection. Thanks for clearing that up.

Meanwhie, we're convinced that Amber LeMay (right) is actually John Kerry.

Ralph Nader officially threw his hat in the presidential campaign on Meet The Press yesterday. Most of you remember the horrific 2004 election, when Nader caught heat for sapping Democratic votes from John Kerry. Nader's certainly aware of those critiques, but insists that his candidacy should not spell doom for the Democrats. And, if it does, that's their problem: "if Democrats can't landslide the Republicans this year, they ought to just wrap up, close down, emerge in a different form." Democratic front runner Barack Obama doesn't seem to agree, saying: "…His function as a perennial candidate is not putting food on the table of workers." Obama also had harsh words for Nader's 2000 comparison of George W. Bush and Al Gore: "Eight years later, people realize that Ralph did not know what he was talking about.” Yes, but if Nader hasn't learned his lesson, we have a feeling a lot of his historical supporters haven't either…

Mary Breslauer didn't always want to be a politico. The New Jersey-born brainiac actually got her start in journalism, but eventually found herself working for the late Gerry Studds, a Congressman who found himself censured after having a consensual, legal sexual relationship with a congressional page.

Breslauer's experience with Studds sent her on a collision course with American politics. Now a co-host for HRC's The Agenda radio show, Breslauser's spending her free time campaigning for Senator Hillary Clinton.

Below the journo-politico talks our editor through her evolution, discusses Studds and explains why Hillary should lead our country.

Andrew Belonsky: Hi, Mary! Are you having a nice day?

Mary Breslauer: Yeah. It's been okay. It's kind of a neutral day.

AB: Neutral?

MB: I meant to go to the gym. I didn't get to the gym. I was like, "It's 4:30. You're talking to Andrew. You're not going to the gym." But there's always another day!

AB: Let's hope so. Alright, we're going to dive right into this. How did you get into politics?

MB: Well, I started in journalism in college: I was editor of my college newspaper. Whenever you spend any time in journalism, I think it by nature turns you into a political person - or, at least, a political junkie. It certainly did for me! And then I made the switch from journalism to what some call "the dark side."

[Laughs]

MB: One of my first jobs was press secretary in Gerry Studds' 1984 reelection campaign immediately [after] his censure. So, that really was just a wonderful baptism by fire into politics! The campaign was completely unprecedented. No one had ever cared about that little Massachusetts district. Then we were flooded not just with national media, but international media.

AB: Were you recruited into that campaign? How did you end up getting involved?

MB: It's funny. I ended living on Martha's Vineyard for ten years in my twenties. I was a reporter and managing editor of The Vineyard Gazette, which is the weekly newspaper for the island. Gerry was our congressman, so I got to know him quite well. When the '84 election came up, just after the censure - I had wanted to make the switch. It was actually my girlfriend at the time who said, "You should call Studds, because this is going to be a big race and he needs help." So, I called him and within 24 hours I was his press secretary.

AB: How do you go into that situation? How do handle you scandal of that nature? I understand he didn't do anything illegal, but it must have been a challenge.

MB: The challenge of it really was that reporters - unless they were local reporters - didn't understand the unique relationship Gerry had with his constituents. Gerry immediately went after the censure and had town meetings throughout the district. He was available to people. Nobody held town meetings until Gerry Studds did. He did it many years before the censure ever happened, so people in the district really had an incredible relationship with him. In the end, he won the primary challenge, which was quite tough, and won the general resoundingly. And he was reelected and never challenged until he retired. Many voters attitudes were as if he were a member of the family. You might say, "Gee, I wish that never happened, but you're one of us."

AB: Is that happened with the Clintons? Obviously Bill and Hillary have been plagued by scandal in the past…

MB: You know, I think the Clintons - a lot of people are turned off by the scandal allegations. But unless you were a true Clinton hater, I think people just said, "Enough is enough".

John Kerry shows no love for former political partner John Edwards this election season.

Despite the fact that the men ran for the White House together in 2004, Kerry decided to throw his weight behind Barack Obama:

Kerry, a senator from Massachusetts, planned to announce his support Thursday at a rally with Obama at the College of Charleston, arguing that the Illinois senator can best unite the country, said a Democrat familiar with the decision. Kerry was timing his announcement before South Carolina's Jan. 26 primary, a contest that has taken on extra importance for Obama after Hillary Rodham Clinton beat him in New Hampshire.

Edwards took the high road, saying that the American nation is "stronger" because of Kerry' work. He also says, "When we were running against each other and on the same ticket, John and I agreed on many issues." Not anymore!

Senator John Kerry proved himself useful last week. The Democrat joined forces with Oregonian Republican Gordon Smith to introduce legislation easing America's restrictions on HIV positive travelers. Those restrictions include nearly blanket bans on infected foreigners.

Kerry and Smith released a joint statement, saying:

The United States has one of the harshest restrictions in the world on HIV-positive immigrants.
…
It’s incredible that the federal government still tolerates a ban that not only restricts AIDS experts with the disease but also refugees who are seeking asylum in our country. My legislation will end this draconian law. The attempts to fix this law through a complex waiver system, while admirable, still don’t do anything to rectify the discriminatory underlying problem. That is why I have introduced this legislation to permanently strike this unfair provision from the books.

Kerry and Smith's plan would give broader power to the Department of Health and Human Services, which originally managed such matters. Congress took control in 1993 with the Immigration and Nationality Act.

So it's really not that monumental, but it's better than nothing.

University of Florida police arrested student Andrew Meyer after he asked Senator John Kerry about the 2004 election. Watch as the cops gleefully taser him as students and Meyer scream for help.

What does Kerry do? Nothing.

President Bill Clinton may play nice with the nancies, but democratic political consultant Bob Shrum's new book, No Excuses: Concessions of a Serial Campaigner suggests that Clinton may just be playing politics.

As Newsweek wrote back in 2004, Clinton may have urged then Presidential Candidate John Kerry to endorse local bans on gay marriage, but Shrum, who organized Kerry's campaign, maintains that Clinton actually meant a national amendment.

Via Politico:

Clinton, Kerry reported at the time, did suggest blunting Bush’s appeal to cultural conservatives with a reprise of Clinton’s Sister Souljah moment in 1992 when he’d denounced her call for violence against whites — and done it as conspicuously as possible in front of Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition.

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To kick off The Power Issue, we turn the floor over to homo-journo, Mickey Weems. You may recall that we've featured Weems most recently for his imaginative take on Hell House.

Now, Weems offers us an open letter he wrote to Ohio Secretary of State, John Kenneth Blackwell (pictured).

As you may recall, the Buckeye State served as one of the most important arenas of political strife back in 2004, when 350,000 votes were refused by shady pollsters. Many contend that those discarded votes decided the fierce electoral war between John Kerry and President Bush.

Beyond the close margin of victory, a number of lawsuits brought the state national media attention. So, where does Blackwell fit into all of this? Well, while sitting as Secretary of State, the conservative Blackwell had the dubious honor in 2004 of serving as Chief Elections official of Ohio and honorary co-chair of the "Committee to re-elect George W. Bush." Needless to say, there's a bit of a conflict of interest in holding both seats. Not surprisingly, all allegations of voter fraud were either ignored or dismissed. (For more background, check out this New Yorker article.)

Now, Secretary of State Blackwell's battling it out with Ted Strickland in Ohio's gubernatorial race. Though every single survey taken puts Strickland ahead of Blackwell (most recently by 36 points), more than a few questions have been raised on how much Blackwell's position as Secretarty of State may "influence" the votes.

In celebration of the election – and with scathingly hilarious wit – homo-journo Weems shares his letter to Blackwell: a letter to which Blackwell never responded

Perhaps Blackwell was too busy perverting democracy or, as Weems contends, too caught up emulating Katherine Harris, Florida’s former Secretary of State. It was Harris' ruling, after all, that played a big role in President Bush’s ascension to power, thus ushering in one of the most disastrous political eras of our time.

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• John Kerry planning a run in 2008, too. As much as we'd love to see his wacko wife Teresa Heinz Kerry again, we'd prefer he just donate his zillions of dollars to charity instead. Note to John: George W Bush beat you. And he SUCKS. Take the hint. [Pam'sHouseBlend]

• Speaking of George: Katherine Harris, who was pretty much responsible for his 2000 victory in Florida, and therefore the entire election, is having a pool party. Who doesn't want to see her in a swimsuit? There must be someone in northeastern Florida who can send us some pictures of that one. [Wonkette]

• The Department Of Defense has been ordered to turn over all TALON espionage documents targeting gay college students. On a related note: is it just us, or do the PageOneQ people always seem to be yelling everything on their blog? They seem very feisty. [PageOneQ]

• …and finally, Top Model recapped by our good friend Rich. Okay, it has nothing to do with politics. But it's just as important. [FourFour]