McCain Steps Over Gauntlet Huckabee Throws Down

They say ad helping other GOP candidates is illegal

(NEWSER) - Democrats are accusing John McCain of violating the campaign finance law he championed based on some new ads in which he supports GOP congressional candidates Ruth McClung and Jesse Kelly. This, says the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in a complaint to the Federal Election Commission, represents an “in kind” donation that exceeds McCain-Feingold’s non-cash donation limit. They also claim it breaks the law’s rule limiting campaign committees to supporting a single candidate, the Washington Post reports. More»

John McCain, you are not Mr Popularity. Michael Steele, neither are you.

(NEWSER) - Republicans hoping to ride the Tea Party wave this year and beyond might end up soaked. Politico surveyed leaders of the movement nationally, and found that almost every single prominent Republican was on the Tea Party's bad list. The party whipping boy? 2008 GOP nominee John McCain, underscoring the disconnect between the two sides. Click through the gallery for also-rans. More»

Goodbye, celebrity gossip, recipes—hello, health care, gay marriage

(NEWSER) - The View is bringing politics to the daytime talk show, once the realm of cooking tips and fashion advice. Discussion of topics like health care is "one of the reasons I watch it," an audience member tells the Los Angeles Times . "When they do the fashion stuff, I tune out." Washington has also taken notice: "The View is definitely a show that makes it on to the agenda of staff meetings when you're doing strategic planning," says a strategist. More»

Lefty says prez sticks to center; a socialist only to 'odd conservatives'

(NEWSER) - Thanks to conservative politicians and pundits, socialists are in the limelight as never before, writes Billy Wharton in the Washington Post—and Wharton, as editor of Socialist magazine, ought to know. Mike Huckabee and John McCain became "our most effective promoters," he says, as they portrayed Obama as a political radical. As much as Wharton's movement "appreciated the newfound attention," the "funny thing is, of course, that socialists know that Barack Obama is not one of us." More»

Weird doings with Hillary, Huck and a chucked shoe

(NEWSER) - Oh-eight was a banner year for politics, and half the time it was a really strange banner. Politico looks back on the weirdest moments in a topsy-turvy year.

• Mike Huckabee holds a news conference to announce he won’t run a negative ad, then plays the ad for everyone.
• Desperate for blue collar cred, Hillary Clinton awkwardly downs a whiskey shot in an Indiana bar.
• San Francisco tries to rename a sewage plant after George W. Bush.