Tucker said in his release that the luncheon was held to honor the openly gay delegates at the Republican National Convention in neighboring St. Paul.
We tracked him down by phone to ask how many that would be among the confab's total of 2,380. Tucker told us that although the party "doesn't keep those demographics," he estimated the number at about two dozen.
Log Cabin did not actually get around to endorsing McCain until Tuesday, but in its statement of support, the group lavished praise on the Arizona senator for "bucking his own party's leadership and the president -- twice voting against" the push for a federal constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.
McCain, who believes the gay marriage issue should be left up to each state, "gave an impassioned speech on the Senate floor, calling the amendment 'antithetical in every way to the core philosophy of Republicans,' " the Log Cabin statement said.
It also applauded McCain's choice of Sarah Palin, even though she is a strong social conservative enthusiastically embraced by others of that stripe. Tucker told us, "When it comes to gay issues, she's largely undefined."
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'Over'? No way, Noonan explains
Republican speechwriter-turned-columnist Peggy Noonan was a center of attention Wednesday when, in a casual conversation inadvertently recorded after she had wrapped up an appearance on MSNBC, she seemed to say that, in her view, John McCain had no chance of winning the presidency.
"It's over," Noonan can be heard saying on the clip as she, NBC political director Chuck Todd and Mike Murphy (another onetime GOP political operative) discuss the ramifications of McCain's pick of Sarah Palin as his running mate.
Noonan has since clarified the context of her comment, and it's not as has been interpreted, she says.
She doesn't believe McCain can't win. Indeed, in a message she sent out after the conversation on the MSNBC set made it onto YouTube, she noted that "at an on-the-record press symposium on the campaign on Monday, when all of those on the panel were pressed to predict who would win, I said that I didn't know, but that we just might find, this is a country for old men. That is, McCain may well win. I do not think the campaign is over, I do not think this is settled."
Her "it's over" comment, she said, referred to the assumption among some GOP leaders that reactions within the Republican base -- such as the enthusiastic embrace of Palin -- reflect the attitudes of most Americans. It is those days, Noonan says, that are "over."
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Excerpted from The Times' political blog Top of the Ticket, at latimes.com/ topoftheticket.
