In which the new “queen of the GOP” becomes the new face of traditional values. When the National Organization for Marriage said she was coming on board, I thought they meant she was going to cut a spot for them. Nope: This is just pageant footage, although she did show up at their presser today to promote the cause. Watch Greg Hengler’s video of her comments. Interestingly, both there and in the ad itself, the focus is less on making the case against gay marriage than on highlighting the shrillness and nastiness of its proponents. Whether that’s because the former is a losing battle or because they’ve gained some sympathy even among gay-marriage supporters after the way she’s been treated, I don’t know. What she says in Hengler’s clip about government making it unacceptable to even espouse such views isn’t terribly far-fetched, though: Britain’s well down the road towards granting this subject thoughtcrime status.

Click the image to watch the ad. Below that you’ll find her appearance this morning on “Today” to promote it, which ends with a question about Palin — and a surprisingly tepid answer, given what we know about Miss Cali. Note well the statement from the pageant committee scolding her for taking a stand on such a “divisive” topic, which of course they never would have done had she taken the opposite, politically correc view of it. Remind me again about this very divisive topic — whose side of the debate does the majority of the state she represents take?