by kos [courtesy of Daily Kos]

McCain would apparently love to get popular Florida governor Charlie Crist on his ticket. The problem has been that the 51-year-old unmarried Republican is well-assumed to be gay. This isn't, "rumors" territory, but "open secret" territory.

Well, in a hint that Crist is seriously being considered for the veep-ship, he announced last week he's getting married. And this is just the latest step in his campaign to prove to the world that he's so totally butch. Just a few months ago, he had dirty trickster Roger Stone peddle a "sex tape" that featured Crist making out with his girlfriend.

The video was seemingly staged to kill the rumors that Crist is gay. Stone claims the tape -- which he discussed recently with Politics1, but didn't show to us ("I'm saving it for the national shows") -- "shows Charlie fooling around in a hotel elevator with his girlfriend ... They're making out." Adds Stone: "It was captured on a security camera in the elevator" last month. And Stone just conveniently happens to have a copy of the hotel's elevator surveillance tape, just when Crist's name is in play for the VP spot. Hmm.

Nice theater.

by The Huffington Post News Team [courtesy of Politics on HuffingtonPost.com]

When you can't legally run for President, it frees you up to say the darndest things. Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared at the Florida Climate Change Summit...

by MissLaura [courtesy of Daily Kos]

• Swing State Project has been gathering 2Q fundraising reports as they come out.
• Florida Governor Charlie Crist is engaged. For the fifth time. (He was married once, for 6 months.) Obviously it's not like this could have anything at all to do with his vice-presidential aspirations.
• Matthew Yglesias explains how Cindy McCain's designer suits equip the McCains to understand the struggles of ordinary Americans. Jed Report's Google Earth tour of the McCains' 10 or so houses is another valuable reminder of how absolutely non-elitist they are.
• Al Giordano unravels the links between a McCain visit and a major hostage  release in Colombia.
• Ezra points to an article on Utah moving to a four-day work week due to energy use concerns.

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by Chris Kelly [courtesy of Politics on HuffingtonPost.com]

Florida's bachelor Governor Charlie Crist is getting married, and to a woman, too. That's how badly he wants to be vice president. I hope John McCain is happy now.

by Josh Orton [courtesy of MyDD]

More from the three state Quinnipiac University Poll, on Bush's approval:

Florida: 27% approve, 66% disapprove

Ohio: 22% approve, 71% disapprove

Pennsylvania: 24% approve, 72% disapprove

Which makes McCain's decision today to hold hands with Bush as they reverse their positions on energy together all the more confusing:

The president's move to end the ban on offshore drilling reverses his longstanding position on the issue. Together with the other proposals he laid out on Wednesday, it underscores how $4-a-gallon gas has become a major issue in the 2008 presidential campaign. A growing number of Republicans are lining up in opposition to the federal ban.

The party's presumptive presidential nominee, Senator John McCain of Arizona, used a speech in Houston on Tuesday to say he now favors offshore drilling, an announcement that infuriated environmentalists who had long viewed him as an ally. Florida's Republican governor, Charlie Crist, immediately joined Mr. McCain, saying that he, too, now wants an end to the ban.

Quite a contrast with Obama, who stands with environmental pioneer Al Gore one day, then calls out offshore drilling as a gimmick and phony solution the next.

by M. and V. Sommer, D. Wyles [courtesy of Politics on HuffingtonPost.com]

When he became a Navy jet pilot, McCain put, count 'em, three planes into the drink. One thing's for sure: if Senator McCain doesn't make it to the White House, he sure won't be flying for American Airlines.

by The Huffington Post News Team [courtesy of Politics on HuffingtonPost.com]

PoliticsOne.com reports: How interested is Florida Governor Charlie Crist in being John McCain's VP runningmate? So much so that veteran GOP dirty trickster Roger Stone...

by Donnie Fowler [courtesy of Politics on HuffingtonPost.com]

No Democrat at the end of the day wants to double-dis (disrespect or disenfranchise) two major battleground states they will fight for this fall.

by Steve Clemons [courtesy of Politics on HuffingtonPost.com]

Looking at the electoral map, John McCain has to break into the northeast liberal establishment to become competitive in November against either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. I believe that the Vice Presidential running mate that will most turn...