what she has to say," and accused Perez of "leading the burn-her-at-the-stake parade".

That was irresistible to Tony Perkins, the President of the Family Research Council who is also a state congressman in Alabama. He tabled actual legislation endorsing her stand, offering "admiration and support" and lauding her "fortitude in the face of continued baseless attacks."

Rupert Murdoch's Fox News scrambled for the "get" of the day, and Prejean next appeared on the Sean Hannity talk show. "There's a lot of people cheering you tonight that you stood on your principles," he gushed, "that you put principles above winning. Not enough people do that. And I admire you a lot for it."

The sense of martyrdom was cemented when Prejean continued on to the Today Show, still the top publicity spot on TV. Matt Lauer, the anchor, asked her if she thought her answer cost her the title. She answered: "I knew at that moment after I had answered the question, I knew I was not going to win because of my answer."

Lauer: "Because you had spoken from your heart."

Prejean: "Because I had spoken from my heart, from my beliefs and for my God."

The beauty queen has been perfectly formed for her mission. She comes from an Italian blood line, and has grown up

in San Diego, the US Navy base where the beaches are as good as Los Angeles, but the moral climate more conservative. She supports the football team, lists her hobbies as running on the beach and reading, and her temporal devotions as being towards her family and her dog Biggie, a Chihuahua.

She has taken a year off from studies at a Bible College, and lists Philippians 4:13 as her inspiration: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

The Republican party establishment is wincing at all this. After their rout at the hands of President Obama, they have been doing their best to zip their lips on the 'culture wars' of Dubya Bush, Karl Rove and the Evangelical Right.

Prejean is a reminder that wars linger, whoever is winning them. It is no accident that Prejean is Miss California, that Hilton is a gay Californian, and that Proposition 8, the ballot initiative that overturned California's own legalisation of gay marriage, was the last great victory of the Right.

The issue, a 'wedge' aimed at scaring voters away from permissive, gay, black Democrats, won't go away so easily now. And the evidence from the opinion polls is that it can still be a Republican winner, because most Americans really don't like the idea of gay marriage.

Matt Lewis of Townhall.com, a conservative blog, expects to see Prejean on the campaign trail. "How long," he asks, "do you think it will be before Miss California is out campaigning with a prominent Republican running for office?"

Prejean hears the call. She told Lauer that she was proud of herself for doing well as a beauty queen, but winning Miss USA's crown "wasn't what God wanted for my life that night". Have the Republicans stumbled upon their Joan of Arc?