Perez Hilton should have thought twice about smearing Miss California Carrie Prejean for her stance on gay marriage. That’s what John McCain’s senior campaign strategist, Steve Schmidt, said on the Hugh Hewitt radio show this week.

Matt Lewis at PoliticsDaily points out that Schmidt, who supports gay marriage (think he’s friend with Meghan McCain?), insists the gay celebrity blogger Hilton actually hurt the cause of gay rights, instead of helping it. In fact, Prejean has now become a conservative darling for standing up for her beliefs, even though she thinks it cost her the Miss USA crown.

Schmidt said:

I think it’s counterproductive to the cause of people who are concerned about equality for gays, because many people that are sympathetic to the cause that will be turned off by a closed-minded attitude being directed, as you said, you know, in Miss California’s instance … I think that this is a debate and a subject where intolerance directed towards people who disagree with you doesn’t serve either side’s cause very well over the long term.

Prejean told a California church this week that officials from the Miss California USA pageant urged her to apologize to the gay community for saying she believes marriage should be between a man and a woman. But she says she has nothing to be sorry for. "You need to apologize to the gay community. You need to not talk about your faith. This has everything to do with you representing California and saving the brand," Prejean said she was told. "I am excited to share my convictions, my faith and my story."  

Schmidt also surprisingly defended Katie Couric for that now-infamous struggling interview with then-vice-presidential-hopeful Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin — yes, the one during which Palin couldn’t seem to name a newspaper that she read:

‘There was nothing that Katie Couric asked in that interview that was unfair to Gov. Palin,’ Schmidt said. ‘It was not a good interview from the perspective of the McCain campaign, but there were no questions that were asked that were gotcha questions or were unfair questions. It was a devastating interview for Gov. Palin when you look back on it.’

You can read the entire Schmidt interview here at Townhall.com.