Sarah Palin will soon be the ex-governor of Alaska. Last year’s Republican nominee for VP is stepping down at the end of July and will not look for a second term. More later.

1. RIP Chuck Daly.

2. If I were a Republican, I would ask Dick Cheney to follow the example of his former boss: sit down and shut up.

3. Is it wrong to be attracted to the new Kirk and Spock, even though I haven’t seen the film yet? Don’t worry Beau. You are still my first, but you never call. I’m only human.

4. Short drunk queens never apologize when they step on my feet at the bar.

5. Wanda Sykes’ joke about Lady Gaga bombed at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

6. Swine flu, the economy, and Pakistan. I’m not leaving the house!

7. Mirrors are the tools of Satan.

8. Anyone read the new biography of Booker T. Washington?

9. Have no interest in the new film Outrage. The whole premise seems rather 1990’s-ish.

10. Radio ninny Michael Savage is a petulant little man who can’t stand when his “ideas” are critiqued. With that said, free speech is absolute (within reason of course) and applies to clowns like Savage.

“The president is free to nominate whomever he likes,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. “But picking judges based on his or her perceived sympathy for certain groups or individuals undermines the faith Americans have in our judicial system.”

McConnell’s Republicans are turning to a conservative Southerner as their point man on Obama’s nominee, signaling that they won’t shy away from a protracted fight despite risks of being cast as obstructionist.

Sen. Jeff Sessions’ ascension as the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee comes more than 20 years after the panel rejected him for his own federal judgeship during the Reagan administration over concerns that he was hostile toward civil rights and was racially insensitive.

Coincidentally, Sessions, R-Ala., replaces Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, a moderate who was one of just two Republicans in 1986 to oppose Sessions as a U.S. district court judge. Specter left the GOP last week to become a Democrat, creating the vacancy atop the committee just as Justice David Souter announced his retirement.

The choice of Sessions has excited conservatives who see him as a sharp lawyer with well-established legal views after a career as a prosecutor and Alabama attorney general.

“Any nominee must understand that the role of a justice is to be a neutral umpire of the law, calling the balls and strikes fairly while avoiding the temptation to make policy or legislate from the bench based on personal political views,” Sessions said in a statement Tuesday. “We must return to our original understanding that policy-making is reserved to the political branches and that courts serve the limited, but essential, role of disposing of cases and controversies based on a fair construction of the Constitution.”

Sheldon Goldman, a political scientist at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, agreed that Sessions has a firm grasp on the issues but said making Sessions “the face of the party” for the Supreme Court nomination might not play well symbolically.

Goldman, who has written a book on judicial nominations, said Specter’s defection resulted in part from the perception that the GOP has moved too far right.

“And instead of responding to that by placing a moderate as the ranking Republican, they go for a very conservative Southern Republican who represents everything that has driven Specter and other moderate Republicans out of the party,” Goldman said.

Sessions is among the most conservative senators, taking hard-line positions on issues such as immigration and affirmative action.

His nomination as a judge two decades ago ran into trouble when civil rights groups complained that he had pursued politically motivated voter-fraud charges against black leaders as a U.S. attorney in south Alabama. Others came forward to say he had made racially insensitive comments, including calling groups like the NAACP “un-American” and agreeing with someone else’s statement that a white civil rights lawyer was “a disgrace to his race.”

Sessions said the comments were taken out of context or fabricated. He and his supporters argued that Democrats were using the allegations to reject Sessions over honest ideological differences.

Sessions, from Mobile, later was elected Alabama’s attorney general in 1995 before winning his Senate seat in 1996.

“It’s a thrill as someone who spent 15 years full-time in federal courts to have this opportunity,” he said.

He said any nominee is entitled to a fair hearing but also should expect “probing questions,” and he did not rule out a Republican-led filibuster under the right circumstances.

Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he doesn’t expect a Republican filibuster. Democrats already have nearly enough votes to defeat that.

Reid paid tribute to Obama’s past experience as a law professor Tuesday and said he’s confident he’ll send a very qualified nominee to the Senate.

He said on NBC’s “Today” show he hopes Obama goes outside the existing legal system and finds a former governor or senator, or someone who has “real life experiences.”

Reid said that “I feel comfortable that his choice will be as good as his Cabinet choices.”

Sessions, who was confirmed for the new post Tuesday, is technically fourth in line in seniority on Judiciary, but the others are either restricted under committee term limits or would have to give up top positions on other panels to take the Judiciary spot.

Under an arrangement worked out to prevent a turf battle, Sessions is expected to keep the Judiciary post only through the end of next year. Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa would then take the top GOP post at Judiciary, and Sessions could become lead Republican on the Senate Budget Committee.

Protest, however, is part of Impact-Florida’s plan on Dec. 12, when the once-divorced governor of Florida marries Carole Rome.

When Crist won the gubernatorial election in 2006, surviving a brutal primary with an opponent who resorted to gay-baiting, I wouldn’t have imagined gay rights demonstrators picketing his wedding. He was a moderate Republican seeking to succeed Jeb Bush in Tallahassee.

But Crist seemed the moderate in 2006 not because of his positions on gay rights or choice or a host of other social issues, but because his opposition in the primary seemed so far to the right.

And now the governor — a potential presidential candidate in 2012 — is facing gay rights demonstrators, who will “respectfully” picket outside his wedding ceremony at the First United Methodist Church and the black-tie optional reception at the elegant Renaissance Vinoy Resort in St. Petersburg.

Crist will say “I do” inside First United. He’ll exit the church, where he will find demonstrators in pink T-shirts. “After the positive congratulatory observance, there will be a candlelight vigil close to the [Vinoy] in downtown St. Pete to mourn the loss of gays’ right to get married,” read a statement from Impact-Florida, the group organizing the protest.

Why the demonstrators?

Because Crist endorsed Amendment 2, which changed the Florida Constitution to state, “Inasmuch as marriage is the legal union of only one man and one woman as husband and wife, no other legal union that is treated as marriage or the substantial equivalent thereof shall be valid or recognized.”

Amendment 2 passed with 62 percent of the vote on Nov. 4.

Charlie Crist, with all his Sunshine Start charm, didn’t work the crowds on Amendment 2. He didn’t stump for the measure — in fact, during a question-and-answer session with the press as recently as early August he needed an explanation of the proposal before he said, “I support it.”

But Crist did endorse Amendment 2, and I don’t think it simply coincidence that at the same time he was scoring points on the right he was getting mentions as a potential running mate for John McCain.

Crist, as any regular viewer of “Saturday Night Live” knows, didn’t get chosen as a political mate in 2008. But he did find a domestic partner and is about to enter a relationship that legally entitles him to 1,000-plus rights and benefits withheld from those who are not married, including gays and lesbians who cannot marry.

Crist is about to enter a relationship that provides him security and stability that Amendment 2’s passage withholds or takes away from many other Floridians. An estimated 400,000 Floridians who are gay or straight are in domestic partnership relationships. And with the broadly written language of Amendment 2, those in same-sex or opposite-sex relationships may lose partnership benefits or find it increasingly more difficult to secure them.

Today, Dec. 8, were Crist to seek domestic partner coverage of some kind for his significant other, Amendment 2’s existence might be used to turn him down. After Dec. 12 and his wedding, no question, no problem.

Florida law severely curtails gift-giving to a politician, even on his wedding day. Crist’s wedding invitations went out with an enclosed card that read, “No gifts please, due to Florida law.”

But even without the law, I don’t think the governor would be getting Tiffany’s from his gay constituents. He’ll be getting what he deserves on Dec. 12 — demonstrators.

Ever since her selection as John McCain’s running mate in late August, Palin, the 44-year-old Alaska governor, was the star of the GOP ticket, though views of her vary wildly across the political spectrum. With the Republican brand corroded and the hunt on for the next Ronald Reagan, Palin could be one of many people competing to influence Republican ideas in the post-Bush era, maybe even as the party’s leader.

“Conservatives are still looking for Mr. Right. And maybe Mr. Right turns out to be Ms. Right,” said Bill Whalen, a fellow at the conservative Hoover Institution.

Palin “has built-in national stature and she’s beloved by conservative talk radio,” Whalen said. But “does she want to be a stay-at-home mom and a stay-at-home governor, or does she want to be a player on the national stage? She has to make a choice.”

She has done little to discourage speculation – begun even as McCain’s campaign faded – that she could return to the ballot four years from now.

In her hometown of Wasilla in the Anchorage suburbs, “Palin 2012″ T-shirts are already for sale.

When she returned to Alaska on Wednesday night after losing the election, she was greeted at the Anchorage airport by chants of “2012! 2012!” Asked by reporters if she might run for president, Palin said, “We’ll see what happens then.”

Grover Norquist, a leading conservative and president of Americans for Tax Reform, called Palin “one of five or six people who is a plausible candidate for president in 2012,” along with familiar names like Mitt Romney, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

“She’s in the top tier, but she’s not next in line.” Norquist said. Running as vice president “puts you in contention.”

Any number of other Republicans may step forward. Romney, the ex-Massachusetts governor who lost the nomination this year, has restarted his political action committee. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is heading to the leadoff caucus state of Iowa on Nov. 22 to deliver the keynote address to a conservative group.

For two intense months, Palin was the youthful foil to the old, sometimes cranky McCain. She was called everything from an empty skirt to the real deal. McCain, in defeat, called her “an impressive new voice in our party.”

“She’s somewhat of a diamond in the rough,” said former Republican National Committee member Barbara Alby, who credits Palin with energizing the ticket. “I expect she’ll grow from that.”

But any path toward 2012 is filled with obstacles, some of Palin’s own making.

Virtually unknown outside Alaska before her nomination, Palin revealed strong – even polarizing – views on religion, abortion and gay marriage.

She became a favorite among some social conservatives, but her cringe-worthy performances in TV interviews raised questions about her competence and provided fodder for late-night comedians. Her charisma attracted tens of thousands to Republican rallies, but voter surveys found her presence tilted a majority of independents and moderates to Barack Obama.

The governor who once won a Miss Congeniality prize was McCain’s muscle, thrashing the media and her Democratic rivals in the conventional vice presidential role.

Her national political persona now bears little resemblance to her image as governor, when she was known for pushing a pipeline to carry natural gas from Alaska’s North Slope, a bipartisan streak and taming the state’s Republican establishment.

Some see her as a possible candidate for the Senate, should a vacancy occur, which would give her a new platform for her ambitions. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, was clinging to a narrow lead in a re-election bid after being convicted of lying on Senate financial disclosure forms. Palin and others have called for him to step aside, even if he wins.

But Palin has rebuilding to do in Alaska. Voter surveys there show she remains popular, but Democrats are now more likely to view her negatively. On Wednesday, she said she hoped to show President-elect Obama how Alaska could be a leader in energy policy.

“Everybody in Alaska is seeing her in a new light,” said Jonathan Anderson, an Alaska Assembly member and a professor at the University of Alaska Southeast.

“We knew she’d been the basketball player and beauty pageant contestant – and not too much more beyond that,” said Anderson, a political independent. “She’s back down with the human beings now, instead of being the star. Those things are going to follow her.”

Mike Cannon, 41, who works on tugboats and fishing vessels, remains a Palin fan but was surprised by her emphasis on conservative social values during the campaign. “I don’t agree with a lot of that stuff,” he said in downtown Anchorage, nursing a cup of coffee.

The campaign, Cannon added, “revealed more and more of her limitations.”

If she wants to lead the party, she’ll need to find a way to stay visible in the lower 48 states – sooner rather than later.

“There continues to be a great deal of interest in her,” said New Hampshire GOP Chairman Fergus Cullen, but “interest has a shelf life.”

In a recent column, he spoke of his “rising anger” with how gay advocates treat his ideological brethren. Of course, we know this is a bluff because Carpenter and other gay conservatives have nowhere else to go. They are dependent on the very liberalism they condescendingly deride and rejected by the very political party they claim to be a part of.

What is notable about Carpenter’s tirade, is how it is at odds with his often intelligent columns. He regularly offers sharp legal critiques and prescient political analysis. However, when discussing gay conservatism, Carpenter uncharacteristically becomes irrational, falling into an undeserved victimhood that is a hallmark of gay Republicans.

For example, Carpenter is upset because Jonathan Crutchley, the co-founder of the gay cruising site Man Hunt, was skewered after giving a contribution to John McCain. Carpenter surmises that there is a witch hunt because of Crutchley’s political affiliation. This is not true.   If he were just another gay business owner, no one would care whom he contributed to. However, it is preposterous for a man whose commodity is sodomy to give money to a candidate who wants to appoint Supreme Court Justices who would be in favor of outlawing gays from having consensual sexual relations. It is this type of cognitive dissonance that earns gay conservatives such deserved contempt.

Republicans in Congress have blocked gay rights progress for nearly three decades. It was President George W. Bush who stumped for a Federal Marriage Amendment. It was Sen. Majority Leader Trent Lott who once compared gay people to kleptomaniacs and alcoholics. I could fill 10 columns with despicable acts and words lobbed at the GLBT community by members of the Republican Party. While the Democrats are not perfect (see Sam Nunn), anyone who compares the two parties is smoking something that has higher street, than political value.

The modern Republican Party was molded by President Nixon’s “southern strategy” and built by Ronald Reagan, a president who ignored the AIDS crisis. It has been home to horrendous bigots, such as Sen. Jesse Helms, Rep. Bob Dornan, commentator Pat Buchanan and Vice President Dan Quayle – who pushed the term “family values,” which notably did not include GLBT families.

In 1998, Republican Pat Robertson ran for president. Robertson lost, but he amassed a huge mailing list, which was transformed into the Christian Coalition. Under the leadership of Ralph Reed, this organization married the Republican Party and this list is today referred to as “The Base.”

As long as this crowd is on speed-dial to the White House, gay conservatives are a politically powerless sideshow. This group should be boisterously rooting for a collapse of the GOP, so the party can be rebuilt from scratch as an inclusive entity.

The core problem with Carpenter’s arguments, is that he invokes a mythical conservatism that is fighting a liberal straw man. The small government party that wants to keep out of peoples’ bedrooms is dead. It has been replaced by a brand of Republicanism represented by Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh and Bush. Not only are these politicians anti-gay busybodies, but they aren’t even fiscally conservative. In 2009, America is projected to run a half-trillion dollar deficit, plummeting from the seven hundred billion surplus under Bill Clinton.

The issue I have with gay conservatives is that they consistently subjugate GLBT concerns. This is revealed when Carpenter says that “we disagree” with the movements “most visible activists…about how much weight should be given to purely gay issues in a time of economic and military turmoil.”

I wasn’t aware that Congress had to choose between the economy and protecting GLBT people from job discrimination. I had no idea that passing a hate crime law might hinder our efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Apparently, Carpenter and other conservatives think they should get to the back of the line and wait for their rights to be doled out at a time of peace and prosperity (when Democrats are in the White House, I presume).

The truth is, I agree more with Dan Quayle than gay conservatives like Dale Carpenter.

Family Values actually do matter and I will not apologize for placing the protection of my family above tax cuts for the very wealthy. Carpenter does not like it when gay conservatives are called self-loathing, but what else can one call people who don’t prioritize legal protection for themselves and the ones they love?

If Carpenter and other gay conservatives leave the movement, nothing will really change. Gay progressives will still be doing the lion’s share of the work, while conservatives will enjoy the privileges of their newfound freedom, while complaining about those who are largely responsible for their liberty.

There is a strong reaction to gay Republicans that may or may not be warranted, but if there is anything we can learn from the Obama campaign it’s that we can’t win this election without some Republican support. I am outraged in many ways by the economic policies the Republican Party chooses to implement (I believe in services for the poor, for example), but I welcome discussions with those who disagree, especially those who are also gay. While the comment board on 365gay doesn’t look to friendly to those right of center right now, I hope that we can take a moment to give careful consideration to the Republican point of view without resorting to insults.

Never met Mark Buse. Couldn’t pick him out of a line-up. I  know he is John McCain’s chief of staff and that means there’s not much we agree on. That’s enough for me. His sexuality, just like the love life of “singer” Clay Aiken, are bits of information that do not need to be added to the flotsam and jetsam in my head.

Yesterday Buse’s supposed gayness became a talking point in the gay blogosphere. When the rumor first hit my email box, I rolled my eyes. Mainly because this type of conversation is as dated as watching  a rerun of Beverly Hills, 90210. Isn’t outing a technique we have moved away from?

Aside from the moldiness of it all, why the shock? A gay man shills for the GOP and its candidate?  We’ve seen this story before and it ain’t new. Can the choir say former senator Rick Santorum’s communications director Robert Traynham? And who can forget Mary Cheney (love the fact she got paid a whole lot of cash for a book no one read)? Are we so naive that we continue to be shocked when we find there are gays and lesbians  who actually are Republican? The horror. The horror.

Yes Virginia, there are gay Republicans; instead of being shocked about that, it might serve us better to come up with reasons on why we disagree with them. And reasons do not include using the terms “Nazi” or “self-hating.”

I’ve said it before and have no problem repeating it. Sexuality does not equal ideology. Never has. Never will

But that does not mean Crist opposes the measure.

“I’ll support it. I’ll vote for it. Move on,” the governor told the Orlando Sentinel. “It’s not top tier for me, put it that way.”

Instead, Crist said he would concentrate on getting Sen. John McCain elected.

The Crist decision did not surprise LGBT activists working to defeat the proposed amendment. Before becoming governor, Crist as attorney general also was lukewarm on the issue.

But it also may be an indication of his need for broad-based support in the state. Recent polls indicate the amendment measure will likely fail to garner enough support to succeed.

A Quinnipiac University poll released Monday finds that 55 percent of voters support the amendment, but that is short of the 60 percent needed to amend the constitution.

Three months ago, a similar Quinnipiac poll found support was at 58 percent of voters, and a Mason-Dixon poll in August found support at 57 percent.

The newest Quinnipiac poll, of 1,427 Florida voters, was taken last week and has a 2.6 percent margin of error.

Florida already has a law restricting marriage to opposite-sex couples, but supporters of the amendment say the law could be overturned in court.

The conservative group Florida4Marriage attempted to have the proposed amendment placed on the 2006 ballot but fell short of the required number of signatures. Under Florida law, the organization was allowed to continue to add names to the petition in a bid to get it on the 2008 ballot. It was certified in February to go on the November ballot.

Opponents of the proposed amendment say in addition to barring gay marriage it would bar civil unions and would be used to deny partner benefits not only to same-sex couples but also to unmarried couples who live together.

That has spurred Florida Red and Blue, a non-partisan organization, to enter the fray on behalf of unmarried opposite-sex couples.

Last year in just 60 days, the group amassed more than $1 million to battle the proposed amendment.