• Defense Secretary Robert Gates appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee today suggesting a plan to roll back the military‘s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy for gay soldiers. Gates has proposed a Pentagon lawyer and a four-star Army general to conduct a year-long study into how the military could lift the ban most easily. However, Sen. John McCain, the top-ranking Republican on the committee, spoke out against lifting “don’t ask don’t tell.” Sen. McCain admitted the policy is not ideal, but said it is still effective. [Newsweek]
• Megyn Kelly, a 39-year-old lawyer, has been given her own two-hour news program on Fox News. Kelly is also in the running for a prestigious prime-time anchor position when Greta van Susteren’s contract expires this year. [Business Insider]

• Cindy McCain came out in favor of same-sex marriage for the NOH8 campaign, following in her daughter Meghan’s footsteps. [BuzzFeed]
• In more McCain-y news, Sarah Palin will campaign for McCain in March when he runs for re-election in Arizona. Am I the only one who is shocked they still support each other? I guess where Sarah Palin goes, journalists and video cameras follow. [CNN]

Sarah Palin has obviously never heard this expression: “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.” While vacationing in Hawaii with her family, she made three mistakes. First, she wore a visor, which is practically the biggest fashion faux pas ever. Second, the visor had John McCain’s name on it, and everyone knows that dude lost the election, so it just makes her look like a sore loser. But her third and biggest mistake of all is ... she blacked out McCain’s name, which was emblazoned on the front of the hat, with a black marker. Really? Really!?

Back in the early 1900s, boxer Jack Johnson was charged with violating the Mann Act, which forbid “transporting women across state lines for immoral purposes.” This act was intended to put an end to prostitution and an amended version is actually still in place. In 1913, Jackson was the first to be prosecuted under the act, and he was convicted by an all-white jury and sentenced to a year and a day in prison. After fleeing the country and living abroad for seven years, Johnson returned to the United States and served his sentence.

As you know, David Letterman’s been getting a lot of flack for opening up his trap about Sarah Palin and her family. He won’t shut up about it. She won’t shut up about it. And obviously we can’t shut up about it. So after the jump, I’d like to take you on a trip down memory lane to reminisce about some older Letterman feuds that people also couldn’t shut up about.

Twitter is enjoying lots of virgin experiences lately. Twittering jurors caused a mistrial, members of Congress twitted away during Obama’s state of the union address, and last week we saw the first tweet from space. Here are a few more getting their Twitter-cherry popped.

John McCain went on “The Tonight Show” last night and spoke about the future of the Republican party and who’s leading the GOP. He mentioned several governors, and, apparently, he doesn’t consider former running mate Sarah Palin to be one of the “young, dynamic governors” in their party, because he intentionally didn’t mention her. Diss! [The Daily Beast via AOL News]

Poor Meghan McCain. It’s hard dating when you’re the daughter of a former Presidential candidate. Especially when he lost. But I’m not just emoting here—Meghan has expressed these sentiments in a new blog post over at The Daily Beast. In her column, “Looking For Mr. Far Right,” she writes that dating for her is a Catch-22 because she finds that she’s not only not attracted to Obama supporters (for obvious reasons), but hardcore supporters of her father too. After all, how’s she to know that the guy is into her for her and not because her dad is a failed presidential candidate?

The National Enquirer, which famously broke the John Edwards cheating scandal, claims that Cindy McCain has been cheating on John McCain. The magazine says that Cindy has been canoodling with a “washed-up 80s rock star”—the picture they’ve produced as evidence looks pretty darn grainy to us, but the woman in the photo does have Cindy’s signature platinum hair. But without getting a look at her eye makeup, I’m not willing to say if it’s her or not. The McCain spokespeople have declined to comment. In any case, if it is true, maybe she’s decided to run around John before he runs around on her—after all, their relationship started with HER as the other woman. But still…kind of mean to kick a man while he’s down! [National Enquirer]

We’re pretty sure that you’re looking at your clock right now, impatiently waiting for the polls to close and the vote tallies to start coming in. But you still have a few more hours to kill, so why not fill that time by taking a look back at everything that happened leading up to today?

Campaign songs have caused more of a ruckus in this presidential race than teenage pregnancy and extra-marital affairs combined. It all started with a John scandal, when John McCain stole “Our Country” by John Cougar Mellencamp from John Edwards after he got axed in the primaries. Then, Mellencamp told McCain to stop using the track, because the liberal musician didn’t want his tune affiliated with the Republican candidate. After that, hippie balladeer Jackson Browne sued McCain’s campaign to protest the use of his “Running On Empty” in an attack ad against Barack Obama. So, we here at the Frisky decided to put together a voting day soundtrack that everyone can groove to. We might have some differences on our ballots, but our booties bump to the same beats. After the jump, The Frisky’s Election Day Mixtape.

Finally. The longest Presidential election EVER finally comes to an end on Tuesday! Well, hopefully. Remember back in 2000 when it dragged on and on for months AFTER election day? Yeah, that was a scream. Anyway, we sent our girl Lori out to ask people on the streets of New York who they’re voting for. Clearly NYC is swinging in one particular direction.

This weekend “Biography” highlights the four key players in the presidential election, just in time for Election Day, this Tuesday November 4th. And if you’re as enthralled with the resurgence of vampire culture as we are, check out the BIO channel on Saturday for “Secret Life of Vampires” at 5 pm. The program will be a study of vampire legends and the impact on pop culture. On Sunday you can watch “True Blood,” which dispels some vampire legends and fully embraces others. See what other Frisky-esque shows are airing this weekend after the jump.

We love “Project Runway” like Anna Wintour loves wearing black shades at night. We just can’t live without it! As fierce fans, we’re already super nervous about the network switch. Who knows what Lifetime, home of sappy made-for-TV chick flicks, will do with our straight shootin’ Tim Gunn?! They’ve already got him shaking in his stylish boots over the relocation of production to LA for Season 6. As if that wasn’t bad enough, now there’s even more cause for concern due to another move: Heidi Klum says she’ll skedaddle out of America if John McCain wins the election. Oh no! We can’t let Heidi tell America, “Auf Wiedersehen!”  [LA Times]

Because Barack Obama and John McCain are stuck in suits most of the time, the only chance we have to see their style is in the accessories. Now, we think some of the lapel pins that the candidates and their wives have been wearing are a little much—we’re in a recession, people, you shouldn’t be wearing so many diamonds, even if they are fake! Michelle Obama has completely nailed her accessories. Sarah Palin, on the other hand, has gone overboard.

The guys at AskMen.com unveiled their list of the “49 Most Influential Men of 2008” and the results, voted on by their readers, may surprise you. Check out the full list and then, over the next two weeks, check out our picks for the “10 Most Influential Women of 2008”—The Frisky picked a female counterpart for each of the men in AskMen’s Top Ten. We hope you agree with our choices! Our #10 pick is after the jump…

During last night’s final presidential debate, in addition to stroking Joe The Plumber’s ego, John McCain used oh-so-retro air quotes to emphasize his stance on abortion and abortion legislation.

Just again, the example of the eloquence of Senator Obama. He’s [for] health for the mother. You know, that’s been stretched by the pro-abortion movement in America to mean almost anything. That’s the extreme pro-abortion position, quote, ‘health.’

All the air quotes really did was call my attention to that notion—the health of the mother—and what that really means. By the tone of McCain’s fingers, you’d think that means when the woman has a cold, she can have a late-term abortion. So I decided to find out, in general, what the “health of the mother” really entails.

In last night’s final presidential debate, “Joe The Plumber” was mentioned by the candidates NINE times. You know what that means? Joe The Plumber is famous! More famously than Joe Six-Pack even! So who the hell IS Joe The Plumber, besides an obviously perfect name for a stock porn character? Well, turns out Joe The Plumber is, in fact, a real dude by the name of Joe Wurzelbacher. Hailing from Toledo, Ohio, the reason why he was discussed so frequently during the debate is because Joe plans to open his own plumbing business. McCain alleges that under Obama’s tax plan, Joe’s taxes would be raised because his small business could make more than $250,000; Obama says that his desire isn’t to punish successful small business owners like Joe, it’s that he wants to spread the wealth and allow other people to succeed as well. Whatever—you can decide how you feel about their tax plans when you go to vote on November 4th. More important, however, is what Joe The Plumber is going to do with his newfound fame! Acting as his imaginary agent/manager, I have some ideas…