The Saturday Night Live crew took some shots at the vice-presidential candidates this weekend when Tina Fey and Jason Sudeikis reenactedSarah Palin and Joe Biden's debate last week.

Each politico's ridiculous attributes were on display, from Biden's apparent worship - and hatred - of John McCain, to Palin's sad reliance on the word "maverick". The incomparable Queen Latifah popped in to play moderator Gwen Ifill and saved a bit of time to take on the candidate's comparable perspectives on gay marriage. This gave Fey an opportunity to skewer Palin's gay "tolerance:"

…Don't think I don't tolerate gay people. Because I do, I tolerate them with all my heart. And I know quite a few, too. Not personally, but I know of them. I've seen Ellen. Oh and there was this one girl on my basketball team, she wasn't officially a gay, but you know, we were pretty sure.

The SNL team also had some fun at gay politician Barney Frank in a bit about the so-called bailout. It's spot on!

Watch both clips, after the jump…

On a somewhat related note, our editor went to the taping Saturday to support his friend, host Anne Hathaway, and spotted CNN analyst and DNC honcho Donna Brazile. It must been past her bedtime, because Ms. Brazile had to "rest her eyes" periodically.

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The National Stonewall Democrats aren't alone in defending the DNC against The Washington Blade's "race riot" emails. The International Federation of Black Prides released a statement last Friday defending Howard Dean, Leah Daughtry and the Democratic National Committee's gay policies. Read what they wrote, after the jump.

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Yesterday we introduced you to gay Senatorial candidate Jim Neal, pictured above with one of his two sons.

The conversation continues today with our editor getting into the nitty-gritty of Neal's current campaign.

Andrew Belonsky: What made you stop volunteering for or fundraising for campaigns, as you did for Kerry, and actually launch your own?

Jim Neal: Well, I've always wanted to do it. I was a little kid and wanted to be president. I don't want to be president right now, but I have always contemplated running for federal office. I think there were two things that prevented me from moving on it. One was that when I did come out in my early-30's, I thought, "Okay, that's it. A gay person can't run for public office. It's off the table". The times changed and that was no longer necessarily the prevailing wisdom, but I had custody of my two children. I was a single parent raising two young children and they came first. Their needs came first. That was the most difficult job I've ever had in my life, but it was also extraordinarily rewarding. Raising two kids with two parents is a challenge, much less one, because you have to be both dad and mom. You've got to have the maternal side and the more stereotypical father role. I think I yielded more to the maternal because I felt like my kids needed that, because they didn't have it. Even before I declared my candidacy, I spoke with both my children - my boys, they're not children anymore - and told them what it would entail, made it clear that I was the one running for office, they could be as involved or not be as involved as they wanted to be. They both said, "Go for it," but my older son threw in the caveat, "Dad, please don't ever forget the little guy."

AB: Your sexuality is not the cornerstone of your campaign, but I want to talk a little about Chuck Schumer and how things went down with your campaign announcement and what could be perceived as the cold shoulder from your Democratic peers. Do you think that reaction tacitly stressed your sexuality?

JN: Not necessarily. There was a good deal of concern - not necessarily expressed, but certainly there were folks who were part of the status quo political system that found my candidacy threatening. They felt that a gay person on the ballot would draw out social conservatives to vote against me and therefore to vote for the other candidate on the ballot. My view of that - I didn't foresee that. It didn't even cross my mind. Chalk it up to political naivete, but it didn't cross my mind because I think it's silly. It's analogous to the so-called conventional wisdom that said a black person could never be elected or a woman, much less a Roman Catholic to the White House. They were wrong then and they are wrong now.

Washington Blade editor Kevin Naff and his staff better watch their backs. The National Stonewall Democrats are, like, totally pissed the weekly paper published emails between DNC's Brian Bond and an anonymous Stonewaller. Those emails, which we also published, accused DNC Chief of Staff Leah Daughtry, as well as other prominent black leaders, of homophobia and a racialized bunker mentality. Read the Wallers' wails, after the jump.

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The DNC's gay discrimination case got stickier this week. Washington Blade reports that gay DNC's gay board chair Claire Lucas could potentially face perjury charges for lying about her place of residence.

Legal documents filed in D.C. Superior Court this week and obtained by the Blade allege that Claire Lucas, a longtime Democratic National Committee volunteer and National Stonewall Democrats board member, committed perjury when she filed an affidavit asserting that she does not live in Washington.

The affidavit, filed Jan. 4, was part of efforts to quash a subpoena ordering Lucas to sit for a deposition in a lawsuit that alleges the DNC discriminated against a former gay employee.
…
D.C. property tax records contradict her assertion in the affidavit seeking to quash Hitchcock’s subpoena that she has been a California resident since 2005. Those records show she claimed the Homestead deduction for the tax years of 2005 through 2007, as well as in prior years, according to Hitchcock’s court filings.

The D.C. law creating the Homestead deduction requires, upon possible penalty of perjury, that homeowners affirm that they live in their home as a condition for obtaining the deduction

Just yesterday the DNC released a statement declaring the contemptuous Lucas a Californian.

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• Alright, we're willing to forgive The View's Sherri Shepard for not knowing whether the world's flat, but we're absolutely astonished that Shepard forgot that Patti LaBelle's black.

• Out's Shana Krochmal talks to Panic At The Disco. Note the lack of exclamation!

• Writer's strike be damned! AfterElton launches Gay People's Choice Awards:

We're asking you to vote on your favorites in the traditional movie, television, music, and internet categories, but at the end we've included several gay-specific categories that you won't find covered anywhere else this awards season!

Vote like your life depends on it!

• Gay panic strikes Kentucky after b-ballers partake in celebratory kiss.

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There's more trouble brewing for the Democratic National Committee. Rumor has it the DNC's gay treasurer, Andrew Tobias, has been revising a bit of homo-related history. Our sources tell us that Tobias recently sent a message to gay Democratic donors claiming that Chairman Howard Dean did not know he was being interview for the 700 Club back in 2006.

Dean misspoke during that interview and claimed the Democrats believed marriage to be between one man and one woman. Tobias has allegedly been telling supporters that Dean thought he was being interviewed for ABC Family, not the Christian Broadcasting Network's long-running news show. He's apparently been tossing this story around for some time, for a May 11, 2006 email to gay Democrats reads,

Howard was NOT a guest on the 700 Club. He agreed to an interview with the CBN/ABC Family channel. Our feeling is that we can't ignore the millions of people who watch CBN/ABC Family Channel programs just because Pat Robertson happens to be on for 30 minutes a day and grabs news content from the network.

CBN reporter David Brody confirmed this weekend, however, that Dean was well aware of the journalist's outlet: "When I interviewed Gov. Dean in 2006 he and his staff knew it was for the 700 Club. That was made very clear.”

Tobias reportedly defended himself this weekend by saying he had been "misinformed" by a DNC staffer.

The fur continues to fly in the DNC gay discrimination case. Yesterday we published some less-than-flattering internal emails in which DNC staffers discuss the gay press, including the Washington Blade. Blade editor Kevin Naff promptly issued a biting response.

Today we hear that gay activist and former National Stonewall Democrats executive committee member Lee Bolin wants to see deputy finance director Julie Tagen fired.

Tagen, of course, derided the Blade and other gay publications thus, "I tend to use the Blade and other gay papers in the bottom of the birdcage." Tagen's candid response led Bolin to write to some pink peers, "If a DNC staffer disparaged black, Latino, or Jewish media the way Deputy Finance Director Julie Tagen did LGBT media, that person would already be out of a job." We're not convinced that Tagen deserves to be fired, for she didn't really insult gay people, just gay press. We do that all the time!

We called the DNC for a statement regarding Bolin's burning desire. Though staffers can't comment, DNC Chief Counsel Joe Sandler sent over this statement:

The DNC has consistently refrained from commenting about ongoing litigation out of respect for the legal process and to protect the interests of everyone involved. It is therefore unfortunate that Donald Hitchcock has chosen to abuse the discovery process by selectively leaking documents.

We can't say where we got the documents, but we can say we don't find anything "unfortunate" about it…

The homo heat's on Howard Dean and the Democratic National Committee.

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Trans activist Monica F. Helms headed to the Democratic National Committee convention in Las Vegas last weekend. Here's a note from her notes on the noteworthy trip:

During the Issues Briefing, two people had a presentation on the issues facing the DNC and the country. They used a Power Point slide that listed the various areas of the population the DNC include. On the list I saw the words “sexual orientation,” but I didn’t see “gender identity and gender expression.”
…
If any transgender person wants to get involved in getting the “T” out to vote, contact me at mfhelms@earthlink.net. I have a plan on what we need to do in regards to the DNC this time. We need to drive home one simple message. “One Percent.”

Why “One Percent?” Over the last 5 years there have been various independent surveys/studies/researches done that when combined, we get a picture that one percent of the American population falls under the transgender umbrella.

Stick it to the man, girl!