The Anointment of Carrie Prejean as the Right's anti-LGBT Mouthpiece

Carrie Prejean, the now disgraced former Miss USA contestant from California who believes that opposite marriage is far superior to same-sex marriage, should have been a fifteen minute blip on the fame radar.  Instead, the GOP is slowly albeit suredly working toward making her the Ann Coulter of this decade.

First, as we mentioned last week, they've hired Prejean to serve as a recruiter for the GOP, catering to young people in Florida with her message of "No gay marriage, no marriage equality, no gay people, ick."  This week, Prejean gets a cover story on the infamous conservative publication National Review, written by none-other-than Maggie Gallagher, the head of the National Organization for Marriage and one of the worst haircuts most virulently anti-LGBT people in the country.

The gist of Gallagher's glowing profile? The Carrie Prejean is to blame for renewed energy among the anti-LGBT crowd.  Of course, despite her trumpeting Prejean's ability to deflect progress on marriage equality, four states have already legalized same-sex marriage this year (the year of Carrie Prejean, if you will).  But that point not withstanding, Gallagher adds that Carrie Prejean is a martyr for cultural conservatives hell-bent against gay rights: she gave up her Miss USA crown in order to speak social conservative truths.

The problem with all of that?  The problem with all of this, of course, is that Carrie Prejean is no more substantive in talking about political issues than Britney Spears is in talking about the Iraq War.  The National Review, founded by William F. Buckley, is now putting Carrie Prejean on its cover pages instead of featuring substantive debates about the leading issues of today.

We're in the midst of the most important debate over health care in our country's history, yet the National Review features Carrie Prejean.

We're fighting two wars, while the world watches to see what geopolitical change will come to places like Iran, yet the National Review features Carrie Prejean.

We're six months off of the worst financial crisis in a generation or two, yet the National Review features Carrie Prejean.

For goodness sake, it's no wonder that the Democrats have majorities in both branches of Congress and the White House.  Responding to the leading issues of the day with a glamourshot of a former beauty pageant contestant says to this blogger that intellectualism on the conservative side is not only at an all-time low, it's practically extinct.

Carrie Prejean may have a multi-million dollar book deal, and she may be enjoying herself by singing kitschy songs at racing tracks.  But the GOP should really reconsider whether they want her to be the new face of their movement.  Because Carrie Prejean certainly doesn't say "big tent" to me.