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.

As we reported earlier, New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer was caught on a federal wiretap arranging to meet at a Washington hotel on February 13 with a prostitute named Kristen from the Emperors Club VIP, leaving his political future in peril.

The wiretap of the prostitution ring showed a man identified as “Client No. 9” - Eliot Spitzer - paying $4,300 in cash, some of it credit for future trysts, some of it for sex with Kristen, a “petite, pretty brunette, 5-feet-5 inches, and 105 pounds.”

A defendant in the case, Temeka Rachelle Lewis, told Kristen to take a train from New York to Washington for an encounter with Client No. 9 on February 13.

According to what was told Kristen, Spitzer would be “paying for everything - train tickets, cab fare from the hotel and back, room service, travel time, and hotel.”

According to court papers, an Emperors Club agent was told by Kristen that her evening with Client 9 went well. Well, that’s good to hear.

The agent said she had been told the client “would ask you to do things that … you might not think were safe,” but Kristen replied: “I have a way of dealing with that … I’d be, like, listen, dude, you really want the sex?”

Is it just us, or is it harder and harder to believe that New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer will remain in office with each detail that’s revealed here? It gives us the creeps.

Snared by wiretapping laws he helped enact, Spitzer is under extreme pressure to resign and many believe it won’t be long before that takes place.

If and when Eliot Spitzer steps down, Lt. Gov. John Paterson, a legally blind, career politician from Harlem, would take office and complete Spitzer’s term.

The Democrat, 53, who would become the eighth African-American governor in U.S. history, is known for commanding strong bi-partisan respect.

Continue reading this article …

Just two days ago, New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer was considered a rising star in the Democratic Party - not only a ball-buster (a steamroller, even), but one with a squeaky-clean image as a consumer advocate and corruption buster.

Moreover, as one Donkey Dish contributor (a Columbia business school student) puts it, Spitzer was the moral compass of the financial world.

What a difference 48 hours makes.

Linked to a top-dollar prostitution ring in a federal investigation, the married, 48-year-old father of three daughters faces a tenuous future. At best.

Putting aside how depressing this is on moral grounds, or how stupid he is to think he wouldn’t get caught, it’s a brutal hit to the Democratic party to lose one of its toughest, smartest members - one with an incredibly bright future.

Even if he hangs onto his current post, Eliot Spitzer - pictured with wife Silda Spitzer at a news conference yesterday - will be forever tainted by this scandal.

“There’s no way he can survive it,” said Ed Rollins, a Republican political consultant and adviser to ‘08 presidential candidate Mike Huckabee.

“All the facts aren’t out there, but as they’re being reported, there’s no way you can survive. Not only is he a hypocrite, he may also end up a charged felon.”

Eliot Spitzer publicly apologized for an undisclosed personal matter. He did not specifically mention the prostitution sting, and he did not resign.

Four days earlier, prosecutors announced the arrests of four people in an international prostitution ring that charged clients up to $5,500/hour.

Wiretaps in the case identified Eliot Spitzer as an unnamed client (No. 9, to be specific) who met a prostitute on February 13 at a Washington hotel.

Political professionals were stunned, in large part because Spitzer, as a former Attorney General of New York State (1998-2006), had made a name for himself going after organized crime and Wall Street corruption.

Does Eliot Spitzer stand a prayer of remaining Governor of New York?

Continue reading this article …

In a story almost more astounding for the stupidity involved than the lack of ethics, New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer was caught on a federal wiretap arranging to meet with a high-priced prostitute at a Washington hotel.

A federal investigation into a prostitution ring revealed a wiretap of a man identified as “Client 9″ on a call confirming plans to have a woman travel from New York to Washington, where he had reserved a hotel room.

The person briefed on the case identified Eliot Spitzer as Client 9.

Spitzer today made a brief public appearance, during which he apologized for his involvement in the prostitution ring, describing it as a “private matter.”

“I have acted in a way that violates my obligation to my family and violates my or any sense of right or wrong,” said Eliot Spitzer, who appeared with his wife Silda at his Manhattan office. “I apologize first and most importantly to my family. I apologize to the public to whom I promised better.”

“I have disappointed and failed to live up to the standard I expected of myself. I must now dedicate some time to regain the trust of my family.”

Before speaking, Spitzer stood with his arm around his wife; the two nodded and then strode forward together to face more than 100 reporters.

Both Eliot and Silda Spitzer had glassy, tear-filled eyes, but they did not cry. The New York Governor did not address his political future.

Continue reading this article …

Perhaps even more controversial than the allegations levied against John McCain by the New York Times yesterday? The struggle at the Times, as reported by The New Republic, over whether to publish it at all.

While negative piece raises some fair points regarding McCain’s integrity, there’s no small amount of trumped-up innuendo either.

It’s hard for us to imagine the Times running a similar piece on Barack Obama, if such material existed. And that’s also a fair point.

The most explosive charge - McCain’s relationship with lobbyist Vicki Iseman - stems from anonymous sources who “think” it was romantic.

At a press conference in Ohio, McCain pointedly denied the whole story. Which is pretty easy to do when there’s no evidence of wrongdoing.

As Barack Obama supporters, you’d think any revelation hurting John McCain’s reputation - a big selling point to independent, even Democratic voters - would come as great news to us.

It might, if it were legitimate news. This is more of a gray area at best, a case of John McCain being “swiftboated” at worst.

Were John and Cindy McCain railroaded by the New York Times?

The New Republic’s story-behind-the-story, which really must be read along with the New York Times‘ article, raises some critical new questions as well as allegations of its own - ones against the venerable paper:

• John McCain had been trying to quash this story since December, even getting heavyweight attorney and PR guru Bob Bennett (he of the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal) involved.
• The Times feuded internally over the McCain-Vicki Iseman piece, pitting the reporters, who believed they nailed it, against executive editor Bill Keller, who believed they hadn’t.
• The piece may not have even been ready to roll, with even liberal Time magazine staying it would not publish such an article.
• The Times may have published its story before it was ready so The New Republic’s story on the Times wouldn’t scoop the Times - and the Times would rather slander McCain than look bad itself.

Bill Keller says that the Times will “publish stories when they are ready. ‘Ready’ means the facts have been nailed down to our satisfaction, the subjects have all been given a full and fair chance to respond, and the reporting has been written up with all the proper context and caveats.”

It looks like critics have some caveats of their own.

John McCain held a press conference in Ohio, addressing the allegations of the New York Times regarding his relationship with Vicki Iseman.

With wife Cindy McCain by his side, the Arizona senator and assumed GOP nominee flatly denied that any inappropriate behavior took place.

Not only was there no romantic relationship, John McCain insists, his aides never confronted him about Vicki Iseman, as one said on the record.

Expressing his “great disappointment” with the New York Times, he says the liberal newspaper story simply “is not true.”

Well, now we know somebody is lying in all this, anyway.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Here’s part one of his press conference, with the second installment after the jump…

Continue reading this article …