Opinion: Forget Perez Hilton, Miss America goes for Judge Rush Limbaugh

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Also, forget Harry Reid vs. Republican TBD.

Or John Ensign vs. his own poor decisions.

The upcoming Las Vegas contest we’ll be watching: Rush Limbaugh vs. Perez Hilton.

Which uber-personality wrings more political headlines from a beauty pageant?

Hilton, the scrappy celebrity gossip blogger turned this year’s Miss USA contest into a fine piece of political theater by asking Miss California Carrie Prejean her views on same-sex marriage.

(Marriage = one man + one woman, the soon-to-be-beleaguered contestant responded, which likely cost her the crown, although it’s the same stance as President Obama, who has not yet won that award.)

Now, the Miss America pageant, which also takes place in the American capital of understatement come January, has announced its own button-pushing judge: Limbaugh is to conservatives what Hilton is to the celebrity-fixated.

Though previous Miss America judges have included MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, whose Democratic leanings and thrilled leg are of little doubt, neither he nor Hilton has inspired as much admiration and revulsion as the king of the radio Dittoheads.

“We know he’s very blunt,” Art McMaster, Miss America Organization president, told The Kats Report blog in a statement of the very, very obvious.
While neither pageant has blatant political leanings, it is interesting that, as both struggle to remain relevant, one grabbed a conservative headline-maker, the other someone more liberal. (At least on gay rights issues. We’re not sure where Hilton stands on the economic stimulus package.)

Here’s an idea (No, not that the judges wear Speedos):

With partisan spars and taunts tainting just about everything these days – President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize, anyone? -- maybe it’s time for the pageants to dive, tiara first, into the culture wars.

Just imagine: Miss USA stumps for ACORN. And, fair and balanced, Miss America gets her own show on Fox News.

As for the swimsuit competition? That’s easy. America wears red, USA blue.

-- Ashley Powers

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