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Hello and welcome to the Slate Political Gab Fest, the new Sarah Palin edition.

I'm David Plotz, the editor of Slate.

I'm here in Washington, D.C. with Slate's chief political correspondent John, the Animal Dickerson, also of CBS News, and joining us by ISDN line from New Haven.

Emily, the tennis ball, Fazzlon.

I think you specify that ISDN line.

That's going to mean so much to many of our listeners.

Well, I sometimes say telephonically, but then I realized, as I was saying the sentence, that you're not joining us telephonically.

He's a stickler for accuracy.

Ergo. It's so important to be. I believe in truth, unlike some people. So we've got a great show for you today. We have three topics. We're going to talk about Marco Rubio and the possibility that he could be Mitt Romney's running mate. And who is Marco Rubio? Why is he important? Why is he interesting? Our second topic will be the Supreme Court argument over SB 1070, the Arizona immigration law that the white has challenged the constitutionality of this week. And our third topic will be a new book about ExxonMobil written by Steve Call. And I'll be talking to Steve Call for that.

But before we even get to our first topic, John, did you know that we have a live show in D.C. coming up? Apparently we do. We've got a live show in D.C. Emily, did you know that? Are you going to be here? I did, and I think it's on May 23rd.

It is on May 23rd. We're going to do a show. May 23rd at 6th and I. We haven't done a DC show for a long time.

We just sounded like one of those public service announcements from the 1970s, you know? Very chirpy. Did you know drinking and driving causes one third of all deaths of people under 20? I guess they wouldn't sound so chipper if they were doing that. But it feels like, I don't know. Anyway, go ahead. Death on the road. The Sixth and I story. So we'll be at Sixth and I. May 23rd, we'll put details up on the Facebook page of Facebook.com slash GabFest. Tickets, I think, are $12 in advance, $15 to the door. So hence, buy them in advance. We'll do a happy hour before the show. It's going to be a lot of fun. It's a great venue, and we haven't seen our D.C. friends in a while. So please come on out and support the Gab Fest at 6th and I. First topic. A promising young journalist named John Dickerson had a piece this week in a little magazine I call a slate.

John, you wrote this week about Marco Rubio and you used the word Sarah Palin. That was all I saw. You said Sarah Palin. So what did you mean? You said Marco Rubio is Sarah Palin? Marker, isn't Sarah Palin? So tell us about Marco Rubio and what's important about him this week.

Sure.

Well, Marco Rubio, one-term senator from Florida, is the sort of at the top of a lot of observers' lists when they talk about who Mitt Romney might pick for his nominee.

And some of the reasons would include the fact that he has a lot of Tea Party support in Florida because he bucked the Florida establishment in his nominee. And some of the reasons would include the fact that he has a lot of Tea Party support

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