It had been a big gay week with the Oscar nominations released and the big political contests soon coming to a climax. So as always, we brought you a little bit of everything last night on The Agenda with Joe Solmonese.

We started out on the campaign trail with Matt Berger of NBC News and National Journal. For the past five months he’s been embedded with the Rudy Giuliani campaign and he talked to Producer Michael Cole earlier in the day between campaign stops in St. Petersburg, FL. Listen in.

Switching gears to film, a GLBT-themed documentary was nominated for an Oscar last week and the filmmaker was our guest in one of her first interviews since receiving the news. Cynthia Wade produced Freeheld about the story of police officer Laurel Hester who fought until her death to be able to leave her pension to her partner Stacie. Listen to parts one and two.

Valentine’s Day is approaching so we gave some tips for women on finding that special someone. Our guest was Barb Elgin who runs Coach Sappho – a relationship and dating coaching service specializing in lesbians.

Then we got back to politics with Susan Morrison and her new book 30 Ways of Looking at Hillary. This editor at The New Yorker put together this fascinating collection of original pieces on Sen. Clinton by respected female journalists and writers. Listen in.

We didn’t want to miss out on the political big picture so we welcomed A.B. Stoddard of The Hill newspaper. This regular guest on Hardball filled us in on the Florida primary, last night’s State of the Union address and next week’s Super Tuesday contests.

Finally we closed out the show looking a little more in-depth at the dark underside of politics. With the stakes getting higher and Super Tuesday looming, the campaigns are starting to go negative. We were joined by Stephen Marks – an expert on the subject having recently told all in his new memoir, Confessions of a Political Hitman. Listen in.

While most of the country had a day off, we were working hard on last night’s edition of The Agenda with Joe Solmonese to bring you our usual mix of politics, opinion and culture.

We started out the show with Holly Ryan, chair of the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition. The Human Rights Campaign recently gave her organization a grant of $25,000 to work towards passing a gender discrimination and hate crimes bill. She was our guest to talk about their plans. Listen in.

Then it was time for a presidential political roundup with Gail Collins of the New York Times. In 2001 she became the first woman ever appointed editor of the Times editorial page and after some time off to work on a book, she returned to the Times as a columnist last year. She had some interesting opinions on why Romney is still the Republican frontrunner and why she thinks women voters are afraid of the kind of big changes promised by Obama. Listen to parts one and two.

We switched gears and chatted with returning Agenda guest Robert Bianco. He’s USA Today’s resident TV critic and he filled us on how the writer’s strike is going to affect the award shows, spring sweeps and the upcoming fall season.

From TV to the tried and true novel, we welcomed author Michael Lowenthal. This openly gay writer has just released Charity Girl in paperback about a shameful and little-known chapter in American history. He was our guest to talk about the book and his career.

Finally on that cold winter evening, we set our sights on some warmer destinations. Agenda favorite Ed Salvato joined us from XM’s New York studios to walk us through the winter issue of Out Traveler, which he edits. Among the highlights he discussed are celebrating important points in life through travel and the top gay spas. Listen in.

Last week on The Agenda we brought you a political spectacular in the midst of the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary. We stuck with a lot of politics this week, but we brought you some other interesting topics as well.

Starting off, we checked in with HRC Regional Field Director Georgie Aguirre. She came to us live from Las Vegas where she’s mobilizing voters in advance of the Nevada caucuses on Saturday. Listen in.

Then we took a look at how gender is playing in the presidential race. Did Hillary Clinton’s teary moment in New Hampshire soften her image? Are there double standards? Our guest was Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women. Listen to parts one and two.

We stuck with the gender theme but from a different angle. Juli Owens is a transgender educator and the keynote speaker at the First Event conference later this week in Massachusetts. She shared her life as a bi-gendered biological male and previewed her remarks at First Event.

We like to stay unpredictable on The Agenda so we switched gears and had some car talk. It’s the Detroit Auto Show this week and returning guest Joe LaMuraglia was our guest live from the Motor City to give a gay perspective on the new wheels. This founder of GayWheels.com says he’s there to put the ‘mo in Motown.

Back to politics, we were thrilled to welcome Peter Beinart to The Agenda. He’s the editor-at-large of The New Republic and has a new book out titled The Good Fight. In it he renounces his position in favor of the Iraq war and argues that it’s only liberals who can win the fight against terrorism.
Listen in.

Finally we wrapped up with two topics that they say don’t belong in polite conversation – religion and politics. Dan Gilgoff is the politics editor at BeliefNet and returned to the show to track how candidates are using (or not using) faith in their pitches to voters. Listen in.