Not that we are particularly interesting in talking about GQ more, but, you know, they sent us their ranked list of the 50 most powerful people in Washington (part of their SPECIAL POLITICS ISSUE), and we just want to get posting about it over with before this actually hits newsstands and 500 people email to ask WHY WE HAVEN’T COVERED IT. It’s a surprisingly decent little list! They asked a bunch of people who knew, mostly, what they were talking about, the lame gimmick entries (Reagan! Even though he’s dead he’s more powerful than Joe Lieberman!) aren’t too egregious, and overall nothing is too embarrassingly wrong. Oh, except for their choice of the single most powerful person in Washington. MORE »

This month, Barack Obama graces the first political cover of GQ since 1992’s “Bill Clinton and Al Gore pick their favorite warm weather duds for a stylish Summer.” Ryan Lizza writes a zillion words about the
perpetually second-place Dem optimism junkie. Long story short: he likes change and hope and shit, and also everyone loves him but for some reason no one wants to vote for him. But boy, does he photograph well!

Above the Fray [GQ]

* Al Gore is planning a global warming concert/rally that will “dwarf Live Aid.” Hopefully, it won’t feature that dwarf from live aid, Bono. [FT]
* Next time Barry Hussein is dropping a deuce and thinking, “Gee, I wonder how I should run my Presidential campaign,” GQ will have him covered. [GQ]
* Donatella Versace thinks Hillary Clinton should wear more skirts and dresses. Donatella Versace also thinks a half ounce of yay is breakfast. [Suitably Flip]
* Wyoming plays the “I know you are, but what am I?” game with New Hampshire. [Election Central]
* John Edwards’ campaign bloggers were a hard target, new softer enemies include “subversive knitters.” [Michelle Malkin]
* Dennis Hastert ruined the free Air Force plane use for everybody. [Think Progress]
* Tonight’s book party for Terry McAuliffe is totally crashworthy, for the guest list and for the two-grand bottles of cognac. [Washington Whispers]

Poor Chuck Schumer. Poor “every Democratic senator who must endure being in Hillary’s shadow.” MORE »

Springtime in Washington isn’t just about the cherry blossoms; it’s also about the parties. Monday night found Wonkette at Viridian, for the launch party for THIS IS OUR WAR: Servicemen’s Photographs of Life in Iraq.

The party was thrown by GQ, with editor-in-chief Jim Nelson hosting, and it was just as glamorous and trendy as one might have expected. The crowd was exceptionally young, attractive, and stylish (at least by D.C. standards). One attendee quipped: “There is more Prada in this room right now than in the entire rest of the District!” Another guest speculated that Beauitful People had been brought in from New York to prettify the proceedings.

After the jump, our report card on the festivities — including an account of General Clark’s hand brushing against our crotch. That definitely made the evening complete!

MORE »

• Reliable Source: Laura Bush on Sen. Hillary Clinton’s plantation remarks: “I think it’s ridiculous, it’s a ridiculous comment. That’s what I think.” [WP]
• Rush & Molloy: The National Enquirer stands by its story that Sen. Ted Kennedy has a 21-year-old “secret love child”. . . George Tenet, dropped from Crown, gets picked up by Harper-Collins. [NYDN]
• Lloyd Grove’s Lowdown: David Wade, Sen. John Kerry’s spokesman, issues feisty defense to upcoming GQ article that says Kerry “blew his best chance and that he’s ‘delusional.’” Wade: “I won’t lose sleep over the inside-the-beltway musings of a reporter too young to shave and the Chardonnay-drinking pals he met on the cocktail party circuit.” The reporter, though, is older than Wade. [NYDN]

This month, GQ profiles Sinclair “Stolen Valor” Communications — best known for last year having said Kerry supporters were “acting like Holocaust deniers” — and finds that the group twists more than the truth. Sure, there’s a sketchy war profiteering scheme (one Sinclair honcho owns part of a company that has a contract with Iraq command), and we’ve come to expect that wingnuts like the Sinclairs to bite at any kind of selling-coke-to-Arkansas-troopers tale, such as this theory about gubernatorial candidate Kathleen Kennedy Townsend: “David became convinced that she fell off a horse as a child and had brain damage. I don’t know where he came up with that. He’s a nut. He sits in his office and thinks of these things.” But our favorite part, if we had to choose, would be the detail that co-owner David Sinclair isn’t just on the books for having dallied with a hooker once, he’s apparently quite the “whoremonger” in general, frequenting what one friend calls “the high-end titty bars.” Oh, those titty bars. MORE »