Controversy Swirls Around Miss USA Winner Rima Fakih

(May 17) -- Who cares about beauty contests anymore? When there are political points to be scored, a lot of bloggers do. For the second straight year, the Miss USA Pageant is facing charges of liberal bias.

Miss Michigan Rima Fakih, a Muslim who was born in Lebanon, was crowned Miss USA 2010 on Sunday night. Morgan Elizabeth Woolard, representing Oklahoma, was named first runner-up (pageant parlance for second place).

Miss Michigan Rima Fakih reacts as she is crowned Miss USA 2010

Isaac Brekken, AP

Miss Michigan Rima Fakih is crowned 2010 Miss USA on Sunday in Las Vegas.

During the question-and-answer part of the competition in Las Vegas, Fakih said she believed health insurance should cover birth control because it's expensive. "I believe that birth control is just like every other medication, even though it's a controlled substance," she said.

Woolard was asked about Arizona's tough new immigration law, which she defended.

"I'm a huge believer in states' rights," Woolard explained. "So I think it's perfectly fine for Arizona to create that law."

Critics and supporters compared Wollard's comment to the most memorable moment of last year's pageant, when Miss California USA Carrie Prejean said she opposed gay marriage. Prejean finished second but became a hero to many social conservatives.

The harshest attack on Fakih so far has come from conservative blogger and talk show host Debbie Schlussel. She claimed that Miss USA has "many relatives" who are terrorists and that a Hezbollah supporter helped bankroll her pageant run. In contrast, Schlussel described Woolard as "classy" and said she gave a "good and somewhat educated answer" about the Arizona law.

"It's a sad day in America but a very predictable one, given the politically correct, Islamo-pandering climate in which we're mired," Schlussel complained on her blog.

Conservative author Daniel Pipes listed five other Muslim women who've won beauty contests in the West in recent years and said he suspects it's the result of "an odd form of affirmative action."

"Fakih's cheerleaders are too busy tooting the identity politics horn to care what comes out of her mouth," charged Michelle Malkin, who ridiculed the winner's "controlled substance" remark. Malkin also wrote on her blog that the question about the Arizona law doomed Miss Oklahoma because pageant officials "didn't want to risk the wrath of the open-borders mob."

Fox News host Gretchen Carlson also cited political correctness in discussing Fakih's victory during Monday morning's "Fox & Friends" show.

"A lot of people are going to parse this today and ask did she lose -- was she first runner-up -- because she supported the Arizona immigration law, and did the Muslim-American win because of the whole PC society that we find ourselves in," said Carlson, who was Miss America in 1989.

A media figure on the other side of the political spectrum who also competed in the Miss America pageant had a much different view.

"Malkin and Schlussel are upset about one thing, that Miss USA is an Arab-American," author and radio talk show host Taylor Marsh wrote on her blog.

"Today, everything is political, especially when an Arab-American wins an American pageant, with her runner-up being the poster girl for the right's anti-immigrant jihad," Marsh charged.

Fakih came from Lebanon to the U.S. as a baby and attended Catholic school in New York before moving to Michigan in 2003. She said her family celebrates both Muslim and Christian faiths.

As for Schlussel's claim of ties to terrorists, George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley wasn't buying it.

"If Hezbollah planned to gain some advantage by winning the Miss USA competition, they are more desperate than I thought. Next they will be targeting the USA Spelling Bee," he blogged.

"As with the Prejean controversy, it continues to amaze me that people inject politics (and frankly substance) in this beauty contest," Turley added.

It's also worth remembering that politics isn't what ultimately damaged Prejean's reputation. It was the disclosure of racy pictures and a solo sex tape. And just like last year, there's a salacious element to Fakih's story too. Hours after she was crowned, TMZ.com published a 2007 photo of Fakih's winning performance at a Detroit radio station's stripper-pole dancing competition.