Republican presidential nominee John McCain’s wife, Cindy McCain, has once again cooked up controversy - by shoplifting a recipe.

And this time, Bill Clinton is also implicated!

Cindy and Bill, along with Michelle Obama, submitted cookie recipes for the 5th Presidential Bake-Off in Family Circle magazine.

It appears, however, that the former president and Cindy McCain swiped their recipes from well known sources, The Huffington Post says.

The July issue of the magazine features a recipe for “Cindy McCain’s Oatmeal-Butterscotch Cookies.”

“They are an absolute must whenever the whole family gets together,” Cindy McCain raves to Family Circle. Mmm hmm.

The only problem? It appears copied from Hershey’s website.

Following the lead of Cindy McCain in cookie-gate is none other than our 42nd President! Although Bill Clinton attributes his oatmeal cookie recipe to a longtime family cook, the recipe is identical to a Betty Crocker recipe.

Really. Again, The Huffington Post published both.

This isn’t the first time Cindy McCain has come under fire in the kitchen - earlier this year, a McCain intern ripped off some of Rachael Ray’s recipes, posting them as “Cindy’s Recipes” on her husband’s campaign site.

See, and people say Michelle Obama is not American enough. At least she can come up with her own recipe … or be stealthy enough not to get caught.

We now interrupt the stream of presidential election news to bring you a sobering update about a state senator that is being accused of “predatory behavior.”

Massachusetts Senator James Marzilli was arrested in Lowell yesterday afternoon, after allegedly assaulting a woman, according to Corey Welford, spokesman for the Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone.

Marzilli is currently being booked on charges that include attempt to commit a crime, simple assault and battery and resisting arrest, said Welford, who added that other charges could follow.

Senator James Marzilli is facing his second run in with the law in as many months.

The troubled senator Marzilli was arrested at 3:45 p.m., his second brush with the law in just two months.

In April, an Arlington woman accused Marzilli of indecent assault, though he was never charged. More than a month of investigation failed to turn up evidence that the senator inappropriately touched an Arlington woman, the district attorney said.

“This is an absolute outrage,” said Wendy Murphy a spokesman for the alleged Arlington victim. “When you hear about a guy doing it more than once, you get nervous. This is predatory behavior.”

Former President Bill Clinton and actress Gina Gershon are slamming this month’s Vanity Fair article that implies he had an affair with her - among other women - since leaving the White House in 2001.

In the story, titled “The Comeback Id,” editor Todd Purdum — who is married to former Clinton press secretary Dee Dee Myers — writes that Clinton’s personality changed subtly but significantly after his 2004 heart bypass surgery.

The 10,000-word essay details numerous shady business and personal dealings from the former President, who was “seeing a lot of women on the road.”

Among the allegations was that in recent years, Clinton has been seen “visiting with the actress Gina Gershon in California.”

Gershon’s rep issued a statement saying: “Todd Purdum’s insinuation is a lie, and it is irresponsible journalism. We are demanding a retraction.”

Clinton also denied the claims, calling Purdum “sleazy” and a “scumbag.”

“He’s one of the guys that propagated all those lies about Whitewater for Kenneth Starr,” he said. “He’s just a dishonest guy — can’t help it.”

Continuing his long-running “conspiracy” theory, he also told the Huffington Post that the article is an attempt to discredit wife Hillary Clinton.

NOTE: A rep for Hillary’s campaign has since apologized for his outburst, saying that Bill Clinton used “inappropriate” language.

Purdum defended himself on CNN, saying he was “very careful to say there is no clear-cut evidence that President Clinton has done anything improper.”

“I reject the notion that I’m making an insinuation,” he added. “But I’m very comfortable quoting the people I quote because I know who they are, and I know that they are very senior people who have known President Clinton for a very long time and work for him at very high levels.”

Former President Bill Clinton is known for presiding over the greatest peacetime economic expansion in the history of the United States.

He is perhaps best known, however, for personal recklessness.

The list of Clinton indiscretions - incidents flying in the face of the compassion and brilliance he so often brought to the nation’s highest office - was not a short one.

And it continues to this day, seven-plus years after he left office.

In July’s Vanity Fair, writer Todd Pardum authored a feature article on Bill Clinton - brilliantly titled “The Comeback Id” - as stunning as it is long.

Not surprisingly, Pardum’s nearly 10,000-word piece enraged the Clintons when it was posted online. They sharply criticized it in a statement.

Even the most supportive, loyal Democrats were saying it in the early 1990s and we’re saying it again here in 2008: what the heck is Bill Clinton thinking?

Even as his wife, Hillary Clinton, steadfastly seeks the White House, the Big Dog has apparently been up to his old tricks in the past few years.

The Vanity Fair article unleashes a laundry list of recent Bill Clinton antics - and his questionable relationships with women are at the forefront.

There is no proof of post-presidential sexual indiscretions on Clinton’s part, despite a steady stream of tabloid speculation and Internet gossip.

But among a not-so-small cadre of Clinton friends and former aides, concern about the company the boss keeps is persistent, palpable, and pained.

For instance, there is this excerpt:

Continue reading this article …

Within minutes of publishing the video of Michael Pfleger mocking Hillary Clinton for crying on the campaign trail earlier this year, we received endless comments.

The responses ranged from comparing Barack Obama to the devil (citing Satan’s deception in the Garden of Eden) to focusing on the role of religion in politics. We appreciate all points of view and encourage them across our site.

With that in mind, this writer would like to chime in:

It’s fair to consider those with whom Obama surrounds himself. But voters that are quick to judge the candidate based on words do not leave his mouth need to step back and ask themselves a vital question:

How will this affect Barack Obama as President of the United States?

Respond to Michael Pfleger’s remarks on Hillary Clinton however you please; then, ask yourself how they’d practically affect Barack Obama as president.

With a mocking tone that runs counter to the unity themes preached by Obama throughout this campaign, Pfleger acted irresponsibly.

It’s impossible to fathom what he thought he was accomplishing by even bringing up Hillary Clinton’s tears during a sermon.

So it’s fair to criticize the priest, but it’s equally irresponsible of voters to not consider follow-up questions such as:

• Does Barack Obama’s association with men such as Jeremiah Wright and Pfleger have any practical impact on his presidency?
• Do words - again, not even said by the candidate himself - affect the economy?
• What about the war in Iraq?

The point, I hope, is obvious:

As Obama himself admitted in his ground-breaking speech on race, it’s important to raise issues and to ask questions. Let’s keep a dialogue going.

But let’s also not lose sight of the bigger issues facing the country, issues that are responsible for thousands of troops dying and millions of people losing their homes. No matter what you think of Michael Pfleger’s remarks, I challenge anyone to tell me how they affect those who cannot pay their mortgage.

Isn’t that what this election should be about? What it has to be about?

There’s one more point to be made, regarding the practical implications of what priests say…

Continue reading this article …

In breaking news, Cindy McCain, wife of Arizona Senator and Republican nominee John McCain, will co-host The View on Monday, April 21.

The appearance comes after a McCain campaign intern lifted Rachael Ray’s recipe for rosemary chicken (as well as other Food Network recipes) and posted them as “Cindy’s Recipes” on the campaign’s official site.

Blaming an intern, the McCain campaign swiftly responded to Recipe-Gate by removing the recipes after the Huffington Post reported the plagiarism.

Knowingly or not, Cindy McCain was caught in a recipe-stealing scandal.

Ray defended Cindy McCain and even invited her, along with her famous husband, to come on her show, saying in a statement: “These recipes are supposed to be accessible to everyone - interns, senators, students and families alike! I am flattered when anyone cooks my food.”

Follow this link for our gallery of Cindy McCain photos.

Always blame the intern John McCain’s campaign said it was a “low-level, unpaid staff debacle” that resulted in a bunch of Food Network recipes being pawned off as Cindy McCain’s on the candidate’s official web page.

Man. First the McCain girls, now this. Is nothing sacred in this world?

As first observed this weekend the Huffington Post, then further lampooned in the graphic below by celebrity news site TMZ, a John McCain intern apparently decided it was time to add the experience of Rachael Ray to the Arizona Senator’s policy team. Hmm. We knew something about her Ahi Tuna was fishy.

Boooooo!

The McCain campaign apologized for the recipe yoinking. They steadfastly stand by the Iraq war and their head-scratching economic policies du jour, however.

A spokesperson said in a statement that Cindy’s “recipes” have been generating “a tremendous amount of public interest” and they’re working on getting this part of the site back up - maybe with actual recipes by Cindy McCain.

Embattled Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick will soon announce that he is establishing a legal defense fund, a spokesman confirmed Wednesday.

Chris Garrett of Impact Strategies, the firm hired to speak for Kwame Kilpatrick’s legal team, said it would be a not-for-profit fund.

He declined to say whether city contractors would be asked to contribute or whether some contributions would be denied to avoid conflicts of interest.

He also said that Impact Strategies - like the mayor’s legal defense team led by Dan Webb, a former U.S. Attorney - would not be paid with city funds.

For his part, Kwame Kilpatrick, 37, says he “looks forward to being cleared” in the perjury case currently pending against him.

He has been charged with perjury, obstruction of justice and misconduct. His former chief of staff and advisor, Christine Beatty, with whom he allegedly had an affair, is also facing perjury and obstruction of justice charges.

The charges follow the publication of sexually explicit text messages between Kilpatrick and Beatty, who may have used the alias Carmen Slowsky.

The pair had denied a romantic relationship under oath during a whistle-blowers’ trial last summer - a claim that could come back to haunt them now.

The second youngest mayor of a major U.S. city, Kwame Kilpatrick could face up to 15 years in prison and be expelled from office.

Only 22, Ashley Alexandra Dupre (also known as Kristen), is now a star in the scandalous demise of New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, whether she likes it or not.

Kristen, outed in a federal investigation as engaging in a February 13 rendezvous with Eliot Spitzer at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, has spent the last few days holed up in her upscale New York apartment.

According to the New York Times, Ashley Alexandra Dupre made a brief appearance in court Monday as a witness in the case against four people charged with operating the now-infamous prostitution ring known as Emperor’s Club V.I.P.

In a series of interviews Wednesday, Ashley Alexandra Dupre said she had slept very little over the past week due to the stress from the case.

“I just don’t want to be thought of as a monster,” the New Jersey native - listed on her “bio” as 5-foot-5 and 105 pounds - said as she spoke with the Times.

Born Ashley Youmans but now known as Ashley Alexandra Dupre or by her work name of simply “Kristen,” she stated with significant understatement:

“This has been a very difficult time. It is complicated.”

Ashley Alexandra Dupre has not been charged with a crime as of this post.

The lawyer appointed to represent her, Don D. Buchwald, told a judge in court on Monday that she was subpoenaed to testify in a grand jury investigation.

Eliot Spitzer, 48, who is married to Silda Spitzer, 50, and has three daughters (all teenagers) announced that he will resign as governor effective Monday.

Continue reading about Ashley / “Kristen” in the New York Times …

As Cindy McCain and Michelle Obama can attest, to be a political spouse is to be a subject of great scrutiny - even when there’s no scandal involved.

So when Silda Spitzer silently stood beside her husband in abject misery the other day, she spurred remarkable amounts of online and TV debate.

From Hillary Rodham Clinton to Dina Matos McGreevey to Suzanne Craig, a long line of wronged spouses have done the same. But why?

Silda Spitzer was obviously in the worst kind of pain after New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer was snared in a federal probe of a prostitution ring.

Proving himself both hypocritical and morally bankrupt, he broke the law by paying for trysts with a call girl named Kristen. Why stand there and take it, Silda?

Amy Ephron of the Huffington Post says just wants “one of them - Hillary, Silda - to stand on the steps of the White House, the governor’s mansion, and stamp their foot and say, “And another thing, I’m keeping the house.’”

Donna Webster, a product development executive in Boston, wished he had faced the music alone, but empathized with Silda Spitzer’s choice, which she assumed was for the sake of their three teenage daughters.

UNDER A MICROSCOPE: Silda Spitzer arrives at the news conference where her husband, New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, admitted his personal indiscretion.

“I’ve been thinking about this constantly. I cringed when I saw her next to him,” Webster said. “I think he should have taken it like a man - without her.”

“[Silda Spitzer] was in crisis mode. She was like a mother bear protecting her cubs. When crisis hits, you do what you think you need to for your family. Later, you can step back and think about protecting yourself.”

UPDATE: Eliot Spitzer has announced that he will resign as Governor of New York State, effective Monday. Spitzer said that he will step down from the state’s top office and promised to “atone for my private failings” with family members.

Aides to Spitzer and Lt. Gov. David Paterson, who will become the Empire State’s first African-American governor, have begun planning a transition.

His political demise was inevitable, but whether Spitzer will face criminal charges is uncertain. Spitzer’s lawyers are in discussions with the U.S. attorney’s office in New York, trying to negotiate a plea deal, according to various news sources.