McCain Campaign Has a Bone to Pick with NBC News

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:

Return Fire

The John McCain campaign is objecting to a comment made by NBC's Andrea Mitchell about Saturday's presidential forum on faith at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California. Campaign manager Rick Davis has written to NBC News President Steve Capus accusing the network of "abandoning non-partisan coverage of the presidential race."

Mitchell said Sunday on "Meet the Press" that some "Obama people" suggested McCain "may have had some ability to overhear what the questions were to Obama. He seemed so well prepared."

During the event, Pastor Rick Warren told the audience that McCain was not able to hear Obama's portion of the program. He has since called the allegations "bogus," and a McCain aide said while Obama was onstage, the Arizona senator was in a motorcade and then in a waiting room with no broadcast feed.

House of Pain

Democratic Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez of California is predicting that many House Democrats will join her and vote for Hillary Clinton at the Democratic National Convention. The Obama campaign confirmed Friday that there will be a floor vote at the Denver convention, although purely symbolic in nature. That vote is aimed at fostering Democratic unity.

Congresswoman Sanchez says, "I think half the House Democrats would probably be Hillary supporters, especially women... I felt she was the most experienced and the best candidate and I still feel that way."

One longtime Clinton adviser told the Politico newspaper that between 600 and 1,200 superdelegates could cast their ballots for the former first lady.

Biblical Blockade

Chinese customs officials have confiscated more than 300 bibles from four American Christians who were entering the country. The leader of the group Vision Beyond Borders says the bibles were taken from their checked luggage after they landed in the southwestern city of Kunming, Sunday.

Pat Klein says, "I heard that there's freedom of religion in China, so why is there a problem for us to bring bibles?"

Klein says officials told him the members of his group could each have one bible for personal use. He also says officers videotaped the group and then asked them to leave the airport. One officer who was on duty at the time denied confiscating the bibles and then told the AP that authorities were just taking care of the bibles.

Hairy Situation

An Italian animal rights group is urging Pope Benedict to stop wearing animal fur. The Italian Association for Defense of Animals and the Environment has started an online petition asking the German-born pontiff to get rid of ermine-trimmed garments and switch to synthetics. Ermine is the white winter coat of the stoat, a type of short-tailed weasel. Around 2,000 people have signed the petition.

The group's leader Lorenzo Croce says, "We are asking that he acknowledges that animals, as God's creation, also deserve respect."

But the pope's garments are being defended by Cardinal Andrea Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo who says, "There are human beings who merit more urgent assistance that no one is taking care of. And if we eat animals, we can wear them."

— FOX News Channel's Zachary Kenworthy contributed to this report.