We interrupt our regularly scheduled McCain takedown

to take a poke at Mittens. But first, a word from our sponsors:



Now on to the main event.

Going into last weekend's meeting of the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, Governor Mitt Romney and his staff said they were expending no energy on and had only fleeting interest in a straw poll that would assess the potential 2008 presidential contenders.

Even after he finished a surprise second in Memphis, behind a Tennessee native son, Senator Bill Frist, Romney was modest, declaring: ''I really don't read into a straw poll very much, certainly not at this point. This is, what, three years away from the '08 race?"

It turns out not all his supporters had a similarly distanced view.

Roughly 200 Romney backers camped out at the Marriott hotel in Memphis, and some had all expenses paid. One of the financiers was John Kingston, general counsel of AMG Inc., a Beverly investment management firm. AMG is run by Sean Healey, the husband of Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey, Romney's most prominent ally....

...Nancy French, who runs the pro-Romney website www.TNforMitt.com, initially told an Associated Press reporter all Romney supporters paid their own way. Later, after a student attending the conference told the same reporter French and her husband had paid travel expenses for him and four friends, French confirmed her involvement.

What a tangled web...

Thanks to Elias for the shout out.