Fey Friends piped up to offer their top ten of Congress' newest hotties. Martin Heinrich of New Hampshire Mexico has our vote! Dream boat central!

Things aren't looking so good for John McCain in New Hampshire, where he once stood strong:

Fergus Cullen, the state GOP chairman, was trying to put the best possible face on a bleak political landscape here, when he said over lunch on Thursday, "McCain's doing his job keeping it competitive here in New Hampshire." It is telling when "competitive" is the most upbeat adjective that a party chairman can muster.

That verdict was offered before the Boston Globe released a New Hampshire poll Sunday, which showed Barack Obama leading McCain by a lopsided 54-to-39 percent margin in a state that John Kerry carried by just 9,000 votes in 2004.

Perhaps these numbers explain this shot of McCain's shuttered office….

[Photo via Nielsen Hayden]

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama appeared today in Unity, New Hampshire, their first public appearance together since Clinton suspended her campaign earlier this month. Describing her former rival as an "unstoppable force of change," Clinton urged her supports to back Obama, obviously, saying, "To anyone who voted for me and is now considering not voting or voting for Senator (John) McCain, I strongly urge you to reconsider." The Senator went on to equate McCain with George Bush, In the end, Senator McCain and President Bush are like two sides of the same coin, and it doesn't amount to a whole lot of change. If you think we need a new course, a new agenda, then vote for Barack Obama and you will get the change that you need and deserve."

Obama took the stage soon after, again stressing the need for - you guessed it! - unity. The Senator also stressed the importance of Bill and Hillary Clinton's respective roles in his campaign:

We need them. We need them badly. Not just my campaign, but the American people need their service and their vision and their wisdom in the months and years to come because that's how we're going to bring about unity in the Democratic Party. And that's how we're going to bring about unity in America.

Talking Points Memo spliced together some highlights from today's event, which we've included below. Meanwhile, the politicos appeared together last night to woo Clinton donors over to Obama's team. And apparently with mixed reviews.

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Democratic voters are overwhelming some primary stations in New Hampshire:

The New Hampshire Secretary of State's office is in the process of locating extra ballots to ship to towns that have expressed concern that supplies are running low. The concern is primarily on the Democratic side, officials say.

Crazy.

Some Granite staters are having a hard time accepting Hilalry Clinton's candidacy:

[Clinton's] campaign stop was interrupted Monday when two men stood in the crowd and began screaming, "Iron my shirt!" during one of her final appearances before the New Hampshire primary.

Clinton, a former first lady running to become the nation's first female president, laughed at the seemingly sexist protest that suggested a woman's place is doing the laundry and not running the country.

"Ah, the remnants of sexism - alive and well," Clinton said to applause in a school auditorium.

Indeed.

Some New Englanders are all sorts of scared following New Hampshire's civil union activation. First the Civic Christian League of Maine came out against queer commitments, now the newly formed Vermont Marriage Advisory Council plans to hold "public hearings" celebrating traditional marriage.

"Stephen Cable of Rutland, the founder of the conservative group Vermont Renewal, said the formation of this traditional marriage council is in response to what he says is the pro-gay marriage leanings of the Vermont Commission on Family Recognition and Protection.

"The council will be holding forums to delegate information on the social goods that come with the institution of marriage," Cable said Monday afternoon. "After that, the council will open up the microphone to hear from Vermonters."

Tom Little of the original Commission says that he and his peers will "be focused on completing the public hearings we have scheduled." He also said they they always encourage "one and all" to come to their hearings.

And so it begins… Democratic presidential candidates Chris Dodd and Joe Biden apparently can't take the campaign heat:

Two Senate veterans — Democrats Joe Biden of Delaware and Chris Dodd of Connecticut — are abandoning their presidential campaigns after very poor showings Thursday night in the Iowa caucuses.

Neither mustered more than 1 percent in the intensely competitive contest won by freshman Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.

We anticipate similar headlines after next week's New Hampshire's primary.

Gay documentary series In The Life is seeking recently civil unionized New Hampshire residents to tell their tales. If you're all about it, check out the show's site.

• We love everything about this picture of Pamela Anderson. Everything.

• Did you know that gay news is "adult"?

UK-based Vodaphone, which has interests around the world including a joint venture, Verizon Wireless, in America, puts a block on access to this site – and on the highly-reputable Gay City News in New York – deeming the content to be “adult” in nature.

We understand the world's an ugly place, but this is just ridiculous!

• Indiana Jones mania begins at Vanity Fair. Next stop: the world!

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Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama released a statement celebrating New Hampshire's civil unions:

Today, New Hampshire has started a New Year by taking an important step forward that will make a meaningful difference in the lives of so many gay and lesbian couples.

As President, I'll work for the day when all gay and lesbian couples in America can enjoy the same legal rights and privileges as straight couples. It's time to stop using these issues to divide us; it's time to embrace a future of tolerance, equality, and hope.

We're sure Obama's support will give him a boost during New Hampshire's primary next week.

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Hordes of New Hampshire homos started their new year by taking advantage of New Hampshire's new civil union laws:

Dozens of gay and lesbian couples entered into civil unions in New Hampshire in the early moments of New Year's Day as a new state law legalized the partnerships after midnight.

Organizers said they checked in 37 couples for an outdoor ceremony on the plaza of the New Hampshire Statehouse - the building where the law was adopted and signed in 2007. Participants bundled up against below-freezing temperatures.

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In a matter of hours New Hampshire will allow legal civil unions for their queer citizens. It's a jump the left, so you know some folk are going to wish for a step to the right. That's why The Civic Christian League of Maine took this historic development to release the following statement:

With New Hampshire's enactment of its homosexual civil unions law, Maine becomes one of only two remaining New England states to not formally allow this deviant behavior.

The Christian Civic League of Maine supports the Biblical precept that all sex outside of traditional marriage, including homosexual behavior, is sin. The celebration of this sin as seen in the events of January 1st in New Hampshire is wrong.

As it has for over 110 years, the League will continue to oppose homosexual civil unions, and preserve marriage in Maine as between one man and one woman only, so help us God.

Alright, the concept of homosexuality has existed since 1869, when novelist Karl-Maria Kertbeny used the term in an anonymous German pamphlet. The gay rights movement didn't get off the ground until about a century later. We can't help but wonder, then, how The Christian Civic League of Maine has been fighting civil unions since 1897. It's especially confusing because the first civil union laws went in effect in Denmark in 1989, way less than 110 years ago.

Regardless of their dubious historical understanding, the CCLM certainly know how to rain on a parade.

January 1st marks a new day for New Hampshire. The Granite State will start offering $45 civil unions: a legislative evolution that will certainly come up on the campaign trail ahead of the January 8th primary.

Social conservatives may criticize the unions as too similar to marriage and they'd be right: the unions are equivalent to marriage. Well, almost: civil unions don't generate quite as much revenue as marriages, but they still definitely help the economy:

…Even conservative estimates are that civil unions will add millions to New Hampshire’s economy.

A 2005 study predicted that legalizing same-sex marriage in New Hampshire would bring in an additional $630,000 a year in rooms and meals taxes in the first three years… A subsequent study in 2006 calculated that 1,352 gay couples, each spending about $7,600 — or one-quarter of the $30,510 straight couples spend on weddings in New Hampshire — would spend more than $10.3 million on weddings if they were allowed to marry.

How can anyone - especially a Republican - argue with $10.3 million for a state's economy?