U-WIRE) ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – I never thought the day would come when I would defend a Republican porn magazine editor, but it has arrived.

Michele Zipp was ousted as editor in chief of Playgirl magazine after she exposed her conservative voting record in an editorial in the April 2005 issue.

She defended herself by claiming Republicans are known for power and greed in this country, which are “two really sexy traits in the bedroom.”

I do not agree with that statement at all. Maybe that is where she went wrong. It is possible that she alienated conservative readers with that remark as well. However, it was published in Playgirl magazine, and I’m assuming that sentiment is tame in comparison to some of the layouts.

In an e-mail to the Drudge Report, she claims backlash from the liberal left ensued almost immediately, and it wasn’t too long after when her publishers relieved her of her duties.

In the e-mail, she admitted that she suspected treason among her co-workers as part of the conspiracy against her.

She said underlings in her office expressed disinterest after learning they worked for a Republican editor. A top-ranking executive at Playgirl told her if he knew she was Republican, he never would have hired her, she said in the e-mail.

One thing that boggles my mind about this incident is how these “underlings” can claim to be liberal and openly work for a magazine centered around naked men but aren’t tolerant of a woman who, rightly or wrongly, might tune in to Rush Limbaugh on her morning commute to work.

OK, before I go any further, I will admit that I have read Playgirl one time. Six years ago, my cousin Bette Anne – yes, that’s her real name, she’s from Arkansas – and I just turned 18 and wanted to do something that was previously restricted. So we went to The News Stand and bought a Playgirl. My cousin had never even been allowed to watch MTV, so this was some risque business.

I don’t remember much about the magazine except that it wasn’t very impressive. We didn’t look twice at it.

Former New Mexico student Jesse Sullivan was Zipp’s intern at the time of her firing. He e-mailed me that morning, informing me of the incident.

“This morning my boss got fired for trying to turn this magazine into something reasonable, so knowing where my loyalty is, I quit right there with her,” he wrote.

He also told me she had been there for five years and had taken a new direction with the magazine. She had inserted more articles and political humor and tried more artistic photos, rather than just “naked buff dudes,” as Sullivan so articulately put it.

Other loyal employees walked out as well, including a photographer and a couple more writers, according to Zipp.

So what were her liberal publishers so afraid of? It obviously couldn’t have been making a decent publication, because that’s a good thing, right? Maybe they were afraid of a Republican woman being in power and pushing conservative propaganda to their readers.

What’s next? A man with all of his clothes on? A political essay on why Anne Coulter would make a great president?

There is no room for that in Playgirl! More appendages, less talk!

I don’t agree with Zipp’s editorial or her politics. I don’t even agree with Playgirl. But giving a political affiliation to a male body part is absolutely ridiculous.

The day when a woman can get fired in America for expressing her opinion in a magazine that features male genitalia is a scary, scary day, and it frightens me.

It almost makes me worried to turn in this column about a porno mag, because the topic might make some people I work with uncomfortable.

Her freedom of speech was stifled with little or no reasoning behind it, and all Americans should be as afraid as I am.

The executives who fired Zipp are the type of liberals who compromise their values. Either they believe in free speech or they do not. They seem to fight for First Amendment rights but bail on their principles as soon as a tactical advantage presents itself. Liberals’ lack of unity and ideals is what lost them the last election, and here is further proof.

I have to give her props for even admitting to voting Republican when it is so cosmopolitan to be liberal, especially in New York City, where she resides.

One thing you can say about the woman is, she’s got balls. Pun intended.