Washington's 60 sizzlingest power couples!

• Author: Baumann, Nick

Kirk Adams chief of staff, SEIU Cecile Richards president, Planned Parenthood

He's a longtime field operative for the labor movement. She's the daughter of former Texas Governor Ann Richards, and was a senior aide to Nancy Pelosi. In 2004, she ran the Democratic turnout operation America Votes, which is funded in part by the SEIU. They did not return a call for comment.

Ken Adelman member, Defense Policy Board Carol Adelman director, Center for Global Prosperity, Hudson Institute

He's a former Reagan administration official and prominent neoconservative, and was a leading advQcate for the Iraq War, which she also supported. When not arguing for the invasion of Middle Eastern countries, the couple runs Movers & Shakespeares, a company that uses the work of the Bard to teach management lessons to corporations--at $24,000 a pop. They once convinced Donald Rumsfeld to dress up in full Elizabethan regalia.

Wayne Berman managing director, Ogilvy Government Relations (formerly the Federalist Group)

Lea Berman former White House social secretary

He served in the first Bush administration, and helped run the Bush-Cheney transition team in 2000. She worked for Lynne Cheney and the Bush reelection campaign before moving to the first lady's office in December 2004. That year, the couple raised more than $200,000 for Bush, earning the coveted rank of Bangers. They're known for throwing exclusive parties for D.C.'s political elite at their Embassy Bow manse.

Jeff Bingaman U.S. senator (D-N. Mex.) Anne Bingaman chairman and CEO, Soundpath Conferencing Services

She ran the antitrust division of the Justice Department under President Clinton. In 1999, after leaving office, she took $2.5 million from Global Crossing to lobby for an FCC ruling that Global Crossing had an interest in. Her current company, Soundpath, provides conferencing services to law firms.

Roy Blunt House minority whip Abigail Perlman Blunt top lobbyist, Philip Morris (Altria Group)

During their 2002 courtship, he tried to insert into the bill creating the Department of Homeland Security an unrelated provision benefiting Philip Morris, for whom she was a lobbyist. His son also worked for Philip Morris at the time. The move was so brazen that even Tom DeLay and Dennis Hastert objected, and the provision was removed. He told the Washington Post that he pushed the provision because he thought it was good policy.

Robert Borosage executive director, Campaign for America's Future Barbara Shailor director, international department, AFL-CIO

The AFbCIO is a major funder of the Campaign for America's Future, a prominent liberal activist group. He did not return a call for comment.

Ron Brownstein political columnist, Los Angeles Times Eileen McMenamin communications director, Sen. John McCain, (R-Ariz.)

In an April 2005 L.A. Times column he touted a potential third-party presidential run by McCain. Three weeks later the couple was married. Times editors subsequently banned him from covering the senator, but the paper recently announced that he'll write a weekly political column for the op-ed page-steering clear of McCain. He was once married to Nina Easton (see page 50), who, like him, now has a spouse who works for McCain.

James Carville Democrotic strategist Mary Matalin Republican strategist

He helped orchestrate Bill Clinton's winning presidential campaign in 1902, and since then has established himself as a highly visible Washington pundit and political commentator. She's a longtime GOP operative who's close with Bush 41 and Vice President Cheney, and worked in the current Bush administration's White House Iraq Group, where she helped build support for the war. The couple met as rivals during the '92 presidential campaign.

David Castagnetti founding partner and lobbyist, Mehlman Vogel Castagnetti

Ann Castagnetti Democratic operative

He's a former top Hill staffer who served as congressional liaison for John Kerry's presidential campaign. She's the sister of Kerry campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill, and ran Kerry's search for a running mate.

Kent Conrad U.S. senator (D N. Dok.) Lucy Calautti lobbyist, Major League Baseball

She ran his 1986 Senate campaign, and they married a year later. Thanks to new ethics rules, she's no longer permitted to lobby senators. (Because of a loophole in the law for spouses who were already lobbyists when they married, she's the only spouse affected.) She continues to lobby the House.

Dick Cheney vice president of the United States Lynne Cheney author and conservative activist

In 1988, after he suffered his third heart attack, she wrote The Body Politic, a novel in which the vice president dies in office of a heart attack while in the arms of a TV journalist, and is replaced by his wife. The novel was rereleased in 2000 after he was selected as George W. Bush's running mate.

Michael Chertoff secretary of homeland security Meryl Justin Chertoff director, Sandra DoyO'Connor Project on the State of the Judiciary, Georgetown Law School

During the 1990s, he was a partner at Latham & Watkins and special counsel to the U.S. Senate Whitewater Committee. She was a longtime lobbyist on homeland security issues for the state of New Jersey and worked briefly at FEMA, where she helped integrate the agency into the Department of Homeland Security, which her husband now heads.

Bill Clinton 42nd president of the United States Hillary Clinton U.S. senator (D-N.Y)

He was the Democratic governor of Arkansas before serving as president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He now runs the Clinton Foundation, which focuses on global health and economic issues. She was elected to the Senate from New York in 2000 and is now the front runner for the Democratic nomination for president in 2008. In 1993, she ran his administration's unsuccessful effort to pass universal health care legislation.

Matthew Cooper Washington editor, Portfolio magazine Mandy Grunwald Democratic strategist

He's a former Washington Monthly editor who, as a White House reporter for Time, learned from Karl Rove in 2003 that...