Mega Hess Oil fundraiser came days before McCain flipped on offshore drilling.

John McCain volunteers wife for topless (ESPN says also “occasionally bottomless”) beauty contest.

So the last of the three presidential debate this fall is none other than Bob Schieffer, who apparently thinks that questioning John McCain’s qualifications to be president is presumptively outrageous. That should go really well.

Late Update: TPM Reader DO points to this Schieffer commentary about the flag pin issue as evidence of his evenhandedness. But I still think the McCain conversation I mentioned above is much more telling.

Nothing says “not guilty” like dozens of leather-clad bikers. So it was a good thing that a large group of motorcyclists were on hand at the Anchorage airport yesterday to meet Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) and escort him to his first post-indictment campaign rally, where Ted shook his fist and reassured his fans: he’s still in the race. Welcome home, Ted!

High-res version at Veracifier.com.

We’re trying to find out a bit more about the Bikini Beauty Pageant at the Buffalo Chip, where John McCain showed up and offered up wife Cindy as a contestant. ESPN says the event is topless and “occasionally bottomless”. Actually their description is worth quoting in full …

Buffalo Chip has a reputation for that sort of thing. It holds a Miss Buffalo Chip contest every night, which is essentially a topless beauty pageant. And occasionally bottomless, too. During a drenching rain Wednesday night, the contest broke up into smaller groups and one woman wound up dancing naked on a bar top. Her boyfriend/husband saw her and angrily dragged her away as she struggled to put her pants back on and muttered something about how, “It’s only this one week a year.”

Here’s video of McCain offering up Cindy …

We wanted to show you a bit more of what the contest is like. Unfortunately, we were worried that posting the videos could lead to TPM being banned from many corporate intranets. So we’re going to link to this video of the Bikini phase of the contest, complete with simulated fellatio and banana coddling. There’s also this Sturgis ‘pickle-licking’ contest. But we’re not sure if that’s part of the Beauty Pageant or not.

Late Update: TPM Reader WR gives us some background/wistful memories …

I grew up in Western South Dakota, and can tell you that “topless, and occasionally bottomless” barely scratches the surface on Miss Buffalo Chip. There were always rumors about underage contestants and on-stage sex–that was simply what Buffalo Chip stood for in the collective unconscious of teenage boys in the Rapid City area. This amounts to John McCain volunteering his wife for a Girls Gone Wild video. Quite a lady’s man, that McCain…

Why is Mitt Romney so keyed up on the idea of Internet dates that sound great at first but don’t pan out well?

If Barack Obama wins the election by only five percentage points, can he still be a legitimate president or will his presidency be doomed to failure from the outset?

That was Mitt Romney’s explanation for why he couldn’t think of any energy policy legislation John McCain had helped pass in twenty six years in Congress …

Obama signs up lawyers to combat GOP voter suppression tricks.

In case you missed it earlier, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK), now under indictment, dropping in the polls and getting ready to stand trial next month, held an indictment rally up in Alaska yesterday. And TPMtv has what I think is the only video of the event, narrated in today’s episode of TPMtv by Kate Klonick.

On a related note, here’s our interview with Stevens Democratic challenger Mark Begich from Netroots Nation.

Can someone explain the Chet Edwards boomlet for me? That’s not a rhetorical question, or snark. He may be a great pick. I just need a little more background on this one.