Snubbed Palin does a cameo at GOP dinner

Washington, June 9 (ANI): After being snubbed twice from the GOP dinner organizers, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin turned in a cameo appearance at the gala fundraising dinner for her party's House and Senate candidates in Washington.

Palin, who along with her husband Todd Palin sat at the table of NRSC Chairman John Cornyn, largely remained unnoticed.

Had her name not been mentioned briefly in the remarks of some of the evening's speakers, it would have been hard to know that she had, in fact, shown up, Politico reports.

Palin's decision to attend the dinner on Monday night ended a series back-and-forth sagas.

On Saturday, Palin had decided to back out of the dinner after being told that she would not be making remarks.

According to Palin's aides, the reason was that the NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions was concerned about not wanting to upstage former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

On Monday, just hours before the dinner kicked off, Palin reversed herself and said she would attend, even though she would not have a speaking role.

The controversy over Palin's attendance began in March, when the NRCC Chairman thought that Palin would be the perfect headliner for the dinner.

But after public uncertainty as to whether she had actually accepted and would attend, the NRSC and NRCC decided to invite Gingrich instead.

As the event started, the former vice presidential nominee and her husband strode across the stage with Gingrich and his wife, getting applause from the crowd of more than 2,000 Republicans.

Gingrich himself addressed Palin's attendance only briefly at the outset of his remarks.

"I thank Governor Palin and Todd for coming here tonight," Gingrich said to applause.

Palin, however, didn't make any public remarks.

In his nearly one-hour speech, Gingrich blasted Obama on everything from health care to national security. (ANI)