Sarah Palin To Speak at Gridiron Dinner

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who has her issues with how journalists treated her during her 2008 vice presidential bid, has accepted an invitation to be a headliner at The Gridiron Club winter dinner -- a gathering of an exclusive group of Washington reporters.

Palin, a potential 2012 presidential contender, is on book tour to promote her memoir, "Going Rogue: An American Life."

The program should be as tasty as the sirloin at the Dec. 5 dinner. Palin will be the Republican speaker and Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, will represent the Democrats. A just published biography of Frank is titled, "Barney Frank: The Story of America's Only Left-Handed, Gay, Jewish Congressman."

I am a member of the club and I remember the winter 2004 dinner, when two men who ended up in the 2008 presidential contests were the headliners: Sen.-elect Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who sang. Obama joked then how everything changed for him after he key-noted the Democratic convention and became an instant national star.

Said the future president back at the 2004 Winter Gridiron Dinner, "It's like I was shot out of a cannon. I am so overexposed, I make Paris Hilton look like a recluse."