Joe McGinniss on Hardball.

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This is a MUCH superior interview to the one Joe did on CNN, and though I usually am not a huge fan of Mathews, he is very respectful and even gives Joe the chance to answer a question without interrupting.

Joe McGinniss defends his book against a rabid Piers Morgan.

Just click picture to watch video

Jesus I KNEW there was a reason I stopped watching CNN! It appears they have hitched themselves so firmly to the Tea Party's falling star, that they are now doing their dirty work for them!

The idea of Piers "phone tapping" Morgan calling Joe McGinniss out on "tabloid journalism" is the height of hypocrisy. 

Anyhow Joe has some interviews with much more reasonable, and professional, journalists coming up today and tomorrow.

Below is the schedule he sent for me to share with all of you.

Tuesday, September 20
“American Morning” 7:00 AM – 8:30 AM
“Inside Edition” 9:00 AM to 9:45 AM CBS-TV 
"Book TV” 2:00 PM to 2:45 PM C-SPAN
“Hardball with Chris Matthews” (between 5 and 6pm) MSNBC-TV 
The Alan Colmes Show 10: 15 PM Fox News Radio 
Wednesday, September 21 
“The View” TIME TK Hit Time (b/w 11am and 12pm)ABC-TV 
“The Joy Behar Show”4:40 PM to 5:00 PM Taping CNN HLN 
“The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell” TIME TK Hit Time (between 8 and 9 pm) MSNBC-TV 

(I will prove the rest of his schedule later.)


By the way for all of you who are currently reading "The Rogue" THIS would be the thread to express your opinions. By the way that is "express your opinions" NOT viciously attack Joe McGinniss!

A moment of levity as Gawker presents the "Best Butt-Related Excerpts From The Rogue.

Courtesy of Gawker:

After a bit of speed-reading, we've located two key butt-related excerpts for you. The first section concerns Sarah Palin's campaign for municipal office in Wasilla in the mid 90s: in which she stands accused of using her butt for political and personal gain. 

"Sarah also introduced innuendo about sexual harassment into the campaign. She encouraged gossip about [opponent John] Stein and [police chief Irl] Stambaugh acting inappropriately during an early-morning step-aerobics class that she occasionally attended. The two men, being less than svelte, had signed up for the class, along with the head of the department of public works, Jack Felton. 

"It was a small room," Stambaugh said, "and there were maybe twenty people in the class. Us big guys stood in the back so nobody would have to look at us, because, to tell you the truth, it wasn't a pretty sight. One day Sarah shows up. She goes right to the front and she puts on this incredible demonstration— three risers, double steps, I don't know what all, but it was a hell of a routine. Afterward, I complimented her on her incredible stamina." 

Before the next class, the instructor approached the three men. "Sarah Palin says she's uncomfortable," the instructor said, "because she thinks you guys are ogling her butt. She wants me to move you to the front of the room so you won't be able to watch her during class." 

The men agreed. But that didn't work either. "You guys are so big," the instructor said, "that when you're in the front of the room you block everybody's view of me." ...

A friend offered a different perspective. "One morning," she told me during the summer of 2010, "Sarah came back in her workout stuff— her outfits were very provocative— and she's singing, 'I like big butts and I cannot lie,' and she's dancing around the kitchen. Todd comes in from the garage, and Sarah starts going on about how the guys are checking her out at the workout place. The way she's saying it is totally antagonizing Todd, and he finally says, 'Well, why don't you put some fuckin' clothes on?'"

As you can see Palin has been using charges of sexist behavior against her opponents LONG before Joe McGinniss ever showed up next door.

And just what exactly was it about Sarah's hindquarters that she considered so irresistible anyhow?

Oh now, that's just wrong.

Somehow I think I will take these gentlemen at their word that they were NOT ogling Sister Sarah's derriere.

I think I will skip breakfast this morning.

Joe McGinniss to appear on Piers Morgan tonight. Update!

This week Joe starts his media tour, and it appears that his first stop will be CNN and a sit down with Piers Morgan:

Palin author Joe McGinniss and more 
Author of controversial Sarah Palin book "The Rogue," Norway Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and former Gov. Jennifer Granholm

As  a rule I tend to avoid CNN, but of course this time I will make an exception.

Joe sent me this e-mail to give me a heads up to where he will be making appearances:

I do Piers Morgan show on CNN Monday, with Colbert and Bill Maher down the line.Also next week, Chris Matthews, Lawrence O'Donnell plus daytime MSNBC.Also The View and Joy Behar. 

Joe tends to keep me in the loop, so I imagine he will firm up these dates and let me know in time to alert all of you.

By the way to the person who keeps sending me messages saying that Joe used me, let me  respond.

Why yes, yes he  did.

He used me to make contacts, to promote his book, and to bounce ideas off of.

But here is the thing, I used him as well.  I used him to reach out to sources that were afraid to go on the record with me. I used him to give me access to the deck of the house right next to the Palins where I got to sit, eat Yak burgers, and gloat. And I used him to get the babygate story out to a much wider audience.

Except that I don't think either one of us consider that "using" each other.  We both had an agenda, and did nothing to hide it from one another.

I believe that is called "cooperation."

Update: A lot of you have been sending me the Doonesbury strip from today, so I thought I would post it along with some quotes that show up on the website. (And before anybody asks me, no I don't know who the redheaded lady is.)

SAY WHAT?"Never hurts to rumormonger." — Sarah Palin, in an email musing on ways to prevent Alaska Senate President Lyda Green from being re-elected 

"Flippin' unbelievable. Wouldn't you think they'd be afraid of being proved wrong when they rumor around the building like that?" — Palin, in a subsequent email objecting to a (true) rumor that Bristol Palin was pregnant

Hypocrisy thy name is Palin!

Update 2: You have GOT to listen to this radio interview that Joe gives on the Leonard Lopate radio show!  He goes into MUCH more detail about Palin's fling with Glen Rice, and even says that Rice has a copy of "The Rogue" and called him to say that, "It's all good."

In other words the stories swirling around that Rice did NOT confirm the affair are bullshit.

McGinniss also says that he confirmed what is in the book with multiple sources ,and nothing was sourced to only one person. The Palin-bots can bitch and moan all they want, but Joe is no dummy and he had all of his ducks in a row before he sent his manuscript to the publisher.

Joe McGinniss puts it all on the line with "The Rogue."

"Stop reading this review! Stop it I say! The only truth is my truth, everything else is a lie!"

Now you are going to read a lot of reviews about The Rogue, that will be rife with spoilers and chock full of all of the best parts, like a movie preview that contains every important scene resulting in the actual viewing of the movie to be almost anti-climatic.

This review will NOT be one of those.

But I will tell you this.  Joe McGinniss does not hold back in this book. And in fact takes a rather stunning, and potentially reputation damaging risk.

And he does it for all of you.

Perhaps its best if I start at the beginning.

When Joe came to Alaska that summer in 2010, he asked to meet me for coffee on only his second day in our fair state.  We met at the Starbucks only about five minutes from my house, where we had a rather interesting conversation.

During that talk Joe asked me to explain why I continued to pursue Babygate.

You know that is one of those conversations that I am always hesitant to engage in with people, because I am never sure how they will respond. But Joe asked, so I carefully laid out my case.

Looking back on it now I believe that Joe was just trying to figure out if I was crazy or not. (Later I learned that a number of journalists and authors had been warned to steer clear of me.) Apparently Joe determined that I was not only NOT crazy, but that my questions concerning Palin's birth story with Trig were more than valid.

However he also informed me that if I expected him to pursue that topic I needed to find him people willing to talk about it, preferably with documentation or eyewitness accounts to share.

I want you to know that I did my level best.  I made phone calls, I sent e-mails, and I even went out to Wasilla to meet some of these people face to face.

But I failed.

Even after Joe left Alaska he said "Jesse I need something more than what I found up there."  So I tried some more, and  essentially ran off people who had once claimed repeatedly to be willing to talk to "the right journalist or author."  (If freaking Joe McGinniss was not "the right author" who in the hell were they waiting to interview them?)

But as you know I kept digging.  Sadly some of my more explosive posts on the topic occurred AFTER Joe had already submitted his manuscript. And still they did not really represent what could be considered concrete proof that she had faked that pregnancy.

So when I received my copy of Joe's book I did not expect much about babygate to be addressed. (I would be proven wrong about that.)

Essentially Joe decided to write a book that is more or less two books in one.

One book is all about Sarah Palin, and her upbringing, politics, and the celebrity status that she enjoys today. The other book is about Joe's experiences as the "most hated neighbor in America."

All through the book Joe weaves back and forth between these two narratives, using the incidents that happened to him in 2010 to illustrate what makes people so afraid to speak out about the Palins, and then revisiting Sarah's life story to better understand why she and Todd react to perceived adversity the way that they do. As well as how a lack of consequences in the past reinforced their vindictive natures today.

In the hands of a less gifted writer this could have been a confusing mishmash of conflicting timelines and seemingly unrelated pieces of information, but Joe knits the two narratives together almost seamlessly.

Essentially we learn, just like we did in Geoffrey Dunn's book, that Sarah Palin uses people up like tissue paper and casts them aside with virtually NO thought to how they might be affected by her callousness. And if anybody dares to challenge her right to treat them like garbage, Todd steps in and essentially intimidates them into accepting their fate without argument.

The level of anger that has built up over the years from taking this abuse, can best be illustrated by the rather unbelievable number of guns offered to Joe while he is staying next door to the Palins. (I cannot help but wonder if at least a few of these friendly Wassilians were not harboring a secret fantasy that Joe WOULD actually feel the need to use one of these firearms and forever remove the Palin plague from their lives forever. I know that seems harsh, but I have spoken to several of their neighbors who feel a great deal of animosity toward that family, and I do not see it as being out of the realm of possibilities.)

Despite the fear that Palin seems to instill in people, Joe manages to conduct a number of "on the record" interviews, with the participants agreeing to allow Joe to use their full names in his book. These include Wasilla resident Catherine Mormile, ex-Wasilla Mayor John Stein, Rev. Howard Bess, and Palin's former Head of Security Gary Wheeler. (More on Gary later.)

As most of us would expect the book also contains a number of interviews with people who would rather NOT be named in the book. However it is a hard case to make that THEIR anonymous information is any more damaging than the information provided by those willing to stick their necks out.

Essentially the information, whether anonymous or with names firmly attached, harmoniously blends together like colors sharing the same palette, to paint a picture of Sarah Palin that is clearly defined and altogether disturbing.

In one of my favorite interviews in the book Joe manages to get one of Palin's so called "friends" to speak to him, though oddly she also demands anonymity.

This person claims to have known Sarah for fifteen years, though it appears that she has really only had minimal contact with Palin mostly consisting of attending the same aerobics class and through a "Christmas ornament exchange" that Palin stopped attending several years ago. This interviewee did not have any real conversations with Sister Sarah, and in fact barely knows the woman, but hey at least ONE person does not hate the Palin family in Wasilla! (Though this poor woman laments the fact that she never received a card from Sarah when her father died, she also insists that Joe write down that Palin always "deals with stress with grace and dignity." Poor little Zombie rat!)

Anyhow you will read more about all of that in the many reviews still to be written about "The Rogue," as well as from Joe himself during his numerous upcoming interviews this week and next. So lets' move on to the reason that you all really wanted to read MY review.

What does Joe address concerning "babygate?" As it turns out, far more than any of us could have expected.

Throughout Chapter Nineteen Joe does not actually SAY that he does not believe Palin's version of events, but through quotes from Andrew Sullivan buoyed up by the suspicions of those that know her that she pulled a fast one, he leaves little doubt that he finds the whole thing virtually impossible to swallow.

At one point Joe addresses the fact that her flight to and from Dallas was the ONLY ONE ON WHICH HER SECURITY STAFF DID NOT ACCOMPANY HER. And in case you are a little slow on the uptake as to the reason why that was the case, her Head of Security Gary Wheeler lays out what would have transpired if he HAD flown with her: "if he'd been there and her water had broken at 4:00 AM on April 17, he would have whisked her to a Dallas hospital as soon as possible, and certainly wouldn't have let her fly to Alaska twelve hours later!" Of course he wouldn't. No reasonable person who cared about the Governor's well being would.

All in all when you see Palin's version of events presented in black and white, in an actual book written by a well known and highly regarded author, it quite literally defies all logic.

I am of the opinion that if anybody who was NOT a dyed in the wool Palin-bot were to read that chapter they would throw the book down in disgust afterward and proclaim, "The bitch lied!"

Which brings me to what I perceive as the heroism of Joe McGinniss.

Joe did not HAVE to address the pregnancy issue in his book, and doing so opens him up to a barrage of attacks from the mainstream media as well as what remains of  Palin's ardent supporters.  Leaving it out would certainly not have hurt sales, considering the rather salacious tidbits that are contained within its pages, and it is doubtful that including it will result in that many more sales either

In Frank Bailey's book he made excuses for why Palin did not appear pregnant.

Nick Broomfield, though he interviewed me for over an hour on the topic, seems to have avoided it completely.

To his credit Geoffrey Dunn addresses the "Wild Ride" head on but carefully avoids slanting his coverage one way or the other.

So WHY did Joe take the risk, when so many before him had avoided it like the plague?

My opinion?  He did it for his friend Andrew Sullivan. I'd like to think he did it for me. I KNOW he did it for you. And he did it because it was the right thing to do and SOMEBODY had to do it!

And because Joe took such a risk with his reputation, with his career, and, let's face it, with the sales of his book, he has very graciously teed up this subject in such a way that it is now positioned perfectly for Fred to come in with his book, focused solely on "babygate" and the media's malpractice in not covering it, and knock it right out of the ball park.

In my opinion heroism like that needs to be rewarded, so if you have not ordered your copy of The Rogue, please do so now.  I seriously doubt that you will be disappointed.

Perhaps the best review of "The Rogue" so far. And a little additional information from me.

Courtesy of The Star:

Weighing in at 318 pages, The Rogue isn’t merely an act of character assassination — it is one long, hard, steel spike through the political heart of Sarah Palin. 

Whatever remote chance remained that the conservative firebrand might one day end up in the White House is poised to unravel Tuesday, when the controversial Joe McGinniss book hits stores. 

Put aside the jaw-dropping allegations of cocaine and adultery. Forget about the claim Palin and former NBA player Glen Rice had a one-night tryst back in 1987, when she was a single young reporter and he was a university basketball player. And never mind the insider accounts of the almost Biblical vengeance Sarah and Todd Palin visited upon enemies, real or perceived, during the march from Wasilla, Alaska, to where they reside today, at the astronomically high-paying intersection of Washington and Hollywood. 

The Sarah Palin portrayed in The Rogue is nothing short of a born-again hypocrite — and one so self-obsessed, yet so utterly unaware of herself, as to not even know it.

I quite literally JUST finished reading my copy, and will have a comprehensive review for you on Monday.

What I will say is that Joe McGinnis did NOT shy away from "babygate" as so many have claimed.

In fact he did a remarkable job of sticking his neck out to make sure that the widest possible audience would hear Palin's ridiculous story of the "pregnancy." As well as her version of the Wild Ride to her fake delivery at Mat-Su Regional hospital. Not to mention how few people living up here in Alaska believe her version of events.

Joe did a great service to ALL of us, as well as to Fred whose book will essentially take up where "The Rogue" leaves off.

In other words, to borrow a phrase that I first heard used somewhere else, GAME ON!

More tidbits from "The Rogue."

Here are a few of the juicier portions courtesy of Joe McGinniss interview on Slate.com:

The juiciest quotes and stories in The Rogue come from anonymous sources, but McGinniss says he nixed "90 percent of the anecdotes I heard," sticking to the ones he could confirm. 

McGinniss reports that the Palins told the original owner (Of the house that Joe rented) that they were going to cut a path through her property. "Todd told her, very plainly, that Sarah was mayor and they could do whatever they wanted, and it would be a mistake for her to try and stop them." The Palins even put up a fence with the ugly back side facing the neighbor's house. 

One friend recalls that Sarah wasn't much in the kitchen when she married Todd. "She can't cook shit. She couldn't do grilled cheese. She'd burn water." John Bitney, the husband of a woman who took care of Palin's kids, notes that when Todd was out, "I'd walk into that kitchen and Bristol and Willow would be sitting there with a burnt pot of Kraft Mac and cheese on the stove and they'd be trying to open one of those Ramen noodle packs, and Sarah would be up in her bedroom with the door closed saying she didn't want to be disturbed." 

On the governor's own diet: "One day she came in with Oreos, bread, bags of fast food, and she ate everything and then disappeared and came out of the bathroom later with blurry eyes, her hair up, and her knuckles red." 

Another friend says that Track Palin joined the army on the advice of his father: "You're gonna do this because you owe us. This is gonna look good for us and you're gonna do it." The state trooper who drove Track and Sarah to the enlistment office tells McGinniss that "there was quite a lot of emotion in the back seat of that car, but patriotism was not one of the emotions." (Joe also confirms Mercede's version of Track's enrollment as having been done to get him out of the way while Sarah was the Governor of Alaska.)

In high school, a classmate claims, Palin liked to sleep in the nude, because "she said it wasn't healthy for girls to sleep with clothes on." Later on, Palin's rivals in her first mayoral race claim she spread rumors of them acting luridly in a step-aerobics class, telling the instructor that she felt uncomfortable because they were "ogling her butt." 

I will also report a little tidbit from MY reading concerning Sarah and Todd's sex life, which just as Levi reported two years ago, is virtually non-existent. Joe also includes a quote that I have heard attributed to Todd numerous times of "Well I know I had sex at least four times, because I have four kids."

And that was BEFORE Sarah's "pregnancy" with Trig.

I have paged ahead a little to see what awaits me, and though Joe does not DEFINITIVELY state that Palin faked her pregnancy, he gives the bizarre circumstances surrounding the "delivery" at Mat-Su Hospital and the fact that people close to her have serious doubts, PLENTY of space in the book.

In other words there is no way this will NOT keep coming up as a topic of discussion on talk shows and during interviews.

Let me close this post out by offering up today's Doonesbury comic.

And by also providing a link to the Mike Tyson interview about Palin and Glen Rice that everyone is discussing. But let me warn you that THIS is quite raunchy! So if you have any doubts about not being offended, DO NOT click the link!

In case I have been too vague in the past let me just say definitely that YES you need to buy and read this book!

McGinniss is a very gifted writer, and even if this were NOT about Sarah Palin it would still be a fascinating book to read. But since it IS about her, that just makes it all the more satisfying.

Well I know what I'll be doing for the rest of this evening.

It just arrived at my front door a few minutes ago from Crown Publishing courtesy of Fed Ex.

And yes I peeked at chapter nineteen and it does indeed address babygate.

Update: I am barely into Chapter One and I am already reading about Todd bullying somebody.

It is Catherine Taylor the lady who rented Joe the house next door to the Palins for that summer.

I met Catherine at the house when Joe first moved in. She was very, very sweet.

Before she even knew who I was she leaned in close and said "You know what? I don't think she had that baby."

That made Joe laugh uproariously and he said  to her, "Do you know who you are talking to?

After we explained who I was she offered to sit down for an interview with me, but something made her get cold feet and it never happened. That is too bad, I imagine she had tons of information that I would have loved to post.

The fact that Todd bullied her pisses me off!

Joe McGinniss's interview on the Today Show, and "Todd Palin's" written, not in person, response. Update!

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

And here is Todd's ghostwritten response:

"This is a man who has been relentlessly stalking my family to the point of moving in right next door to us to harass us and spy on us. He traffics in innuendo and falsehoods. A few years ago he interviewed members of Sarah's administration for a magazine article, and afterwards they said that he was the most disingenuous and intellectual dishonest writer they'd ever dealt with. He's spent the last year interviewing marginal figures with an axe to grind in order to churn out a hit piece to satisfy his own creepy obsession with my wife. I'd ask that people consider these facts when evaluating his latest lies." 

"I'd ask the fathers and husbands of America to consider our privacy when one summer day I found this guy on the deck of the rental property, just 18 feet away next door to us, staring like a creep at my wife while she mowed the lawn in her shorts, unbeknownst to her that he was prying. As well as our teenage daughters while they tried to enjoy our traditional Alaskan summer days outdoors. Joe's son told the media he advised his dad not to move from the East Coast to become our next door neighbor, but said his dad 'was just waiting for Todd to be out of the picture.' Sarah has never spoken to this intruder into our lives, our friends and family don't speak to him, so we have no idea where he would come up with content for his book. He was on our doorstep one day trying to make conversation with our son until Track cut the conversation short after discerning Joe's odd behavior, and I spoke to him one time when I saw him 18 feet away, just to find out who he was. He took that conversation and reported it to the media as me 'threatening' him."

Well this is clearly the work of somebody who is NOT Todd Palin.

The opportunity to write THIS kind of statement is exactly why Sarah made those "creepy" references about Joe when he first moved in next door. The idea was to create a meme that he was a pervert, and possible pedophile, in order to lay the groundwork to dismiss his book out of hand when it was finally published.

And if the book had come out only a few months after Palin's Facebook post, that might have worked like a charm.

The question is now with EVERYTHING that has been revealed about Palin in articles, books, Nick's movie, and the blogs, and how similar it all is, will that actually be enough to discredit McGinniss and keep his book from selling?

I think the answer to that is no.

By the way here is today's Doonesbury strip.

Update: Okay since everybody is asking for it, THIS is what Joe McGinniss would have seen if he had actually been staring at Sarah Palin in her shorts.

Feel free to "ogle" away.

In light of the recent revelations in Joe McGinniss's book, I think THIS picture takes on a whole new meaning. Update.

Look how focused she is on the President.

If they had not sent Lieberman to essentially body check her, there is no telling what kind of fool she would have made of herself.

I wonder if THIS dismissal by Obama was not the beginning of her raging hatred toward the man?

By the way I received a phone call from the National Enquirer, who first published the excerpts and are also chasing the story from another angle, and I asked them if they felt confident they had the straight poop on Joe's book.

I was told they had managed to confirm it with somebody connected to the publishing house, so there was very little doubt that they had their facts right.

I also emailed Joe to ask if he could confirm that what has been reported is accurate.  I don't expect he can say anything about it, and if he did he would probably swear me to silence, but I felt it was worth a shot. But from what I know of Joe he would NOT allow this to be printed if it were not completely accurate.

I also asked Joe if he had sent Palin an advance copy of his book.  I don't think he did, but I do know that other authors have done so, as did the National Enquirer when they were doing the Shailey Tripp story, so its possible.

THAT would explain a lot about her recent appearance and behaviors.

Oops, I almost forgot that we still have source who HAS read the book who continues to actively leak snippets. Here is today's Doonesbury comic, which is still being censored in newspapers across the country.

Update: Okay I sorta kinda got confirmation that the Glen Rice story is in the book. Oh and my copy of "The Rogue" should be here in the next few days.

Update 2: It looks like the New York times has released their review of "The Rogue." (The review also contains an excerpt from the book.  Go ahead and count how many of the "rumors" that you first learned of on the blogs that are validated in just these three pages alone.)

This is the portion that I believe is of the most interest to the majority of those visiting here:

With the same imprecise aim he cites conspiracy theories that Ms. Palin may not be the mother of her youngest son, Trig, and questions the circumstances under which he was born. Mr. McGinniss puts forth a provocative case for doubting Ms. Palin’s account of Trig’s birth, which involved a round trip between Alaska and Texas while she was supposedly in labor. But then he comes to an indefensibly reckless conclusion: “It is perhaps the most blistering assessment of her character possible that many Wasillans who’d known Sarah from high school onward told me that even if she had not faked the entire story of her pregnancy and Trig’s birth, it was something she was eminently capable of doing.”

In Joe's defense I do have to say that he tried to get the information about babygate into his book.  But because he could not get definitive proof of the fake pregnancy, or anybody close to the situation to go on the record, he simply could NOT get it past his publisher's lawyers.

Update 2: Joe McGinniss interview will be broadcast tomorrow on the Today Show for those who are interested.

Update 3: Tweets from Savannah Guthrie:

Savannah Guthrie 
Tomorrow: our exclusive @todayshow intvw w author Joe McGinniss, who authored the new Palin book (and lived next door while researching it). 


Savannah Guthrie 
And we'll report on Todd Palin's response to the book - see you at 7a for @todayshow 

Oooh this could get REALLY good!

Just when you thought Sarah Palin's month could NOT get any worse! Update!

Some more tidbits have emerged concerning Joe McGinniss's book "The Rogue." You might want to sit down for these.

Courtesy of the Daily Mail:

Sarah Palin snorted cocaine off a 55 gallon oil drum while snowmobiling with friends and had elicit affairs with a top NBA star and one of her husband's business partners, a new book sensationally claims. 

In revelations which could strike a devastating blow to the controversial politician's hopes of joining the 2012 presidential race, Mrs Palin is said to have taken the class A drug with her husband, while smoking marijuana at college in secret liaisons with one of her professors. 

Joe McGinniss's book The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin, which is due to be published on September 20, also alleges that the former governor of Alaska is far from the traditional family woman she claims to be. 

Mrs Palin, 47, had a one-night stand with Miami Heat basketball star Glen Rice less than a year before she eloped with her husband, the book claims. 

She is said to have met the 6ft 8ins player in 1987 when he was playing in a college basketball tournament in Alaska and she worked as a sports reporter for KTUU television. 

It is also claimed that she had a six month affair with Brad Hanson, who ran a snowmobile dealership with her husband Todd - a betrayal which led to Todd dissolving their business. 

The author writes that after college Mrs Palin developed a 'fetish' for black men. 

She allegedly had a tryst with basketball star Glen Rice in her younger sister Molly's University of Alaska dorm room, while she was dating Todd and just nine months before the couple were married.

A friend said Mrs Palin spent the night with the basketball star but could not confirm whether they had sex, according to the National Enquirer.'I remember Sarah feeling pretty good that she'd been with a black basketball star,' a source told the magazine. 

The athlete is said to have confirmed the night of passion in Mr McGinniss's book. 

Glen Rice confirmed the one night stand?  Oh damn!

While there is nothing surprising about the marijuana smoking, or even the cocaine use, (Everybody in the Valley tokes up and does a little blow at one time or another), and virtually EVERYBODY knows about her affair with Brad Hanson,  the fact that Sister Sarah hooked up with an African American basketball star is going to blow her Teabagger supporters minds!

You know what? Maybe THIS helps to explain Palin's weird obsession with President Obama?

I think it also might explain why Todd is such a pathetic bully.  Here is a guy whose wife has emasculated him at every turn. Marrying him while carrying another man's baby, banging a physically imposing basketball star, and hooking up with his business partner while he was out of town working to support the family. Sucks to be Todd!

I think it puts a whole new spin on Shailey Tripp's story as well.

Man I am really sorry for all of you who cancelled your pre-orders for "The Rogue."  THIS book is going to drive the final nails in the coffin of Palin's public persona.  I simply don't see her recovering from this.

And hell Fred and Levi's books are still yet to come!

Update: By the way this is what Palin looked like during the time that she was a KTUU sports reporter in 1987.

Do you think perhaps Rice was drinking that night? Or that perhaps HE had a fetish for wonky eyed female sports announcers?

Joe McGinniss and "The Rogue" get the Doonesbury treatment. Update.

I am a little intrigued with where this story line might go, in light of what happened with Joe and the authors of "Blind Allegiance." However Joe has been urging people to read Doonesbury, so he must have faith it will not show him in an unfavorable light.

By the way let me just say that I used to be a HUGE fan of Doonesbury!  And I mean HUGE!

I got hooked on them after I bought a bunch of the pocketbooks to read on the plane on my way to college. By the time the plane landed in Hawaii, I was hooked!

Hell I even named my cat "Doonesbury." And as much as I usually shun publicity it would absolutely make my decade if I showed up in one of the strips, unlikely as that may be.

Speaking of showing up in one of the strips, check out Trudeau's evisceration of Palin in this one from Sunday.

And since I brought up the authors of Blind Allegiance, I guess I should probably report that there is still some chance that they are planning to sue McGinniss over the leaked manuscript:

One of the three co-authors of a Sarah Palin tell-all said he's weighing his options -- including whether to sue -- over the unauthorized leak of the book's manuscript. 

Ken Morris said he spent tens of thousands of dollars on attorneys to try to fight the leak -- more than he made from "Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin: A Memoir of Our Tumultuous Years." The tell-all by former Palin aide Frank Bailey was also written with blogger Jeanne Devon. The book was eventually published in May though Morris and Devon have said they struggled to find a publisher. 

Rival author Joe McGinniss was accused of helping leak the manuscript in February. McGinniss, a best-selling author, made headlines last year when he moved next door to Palin in Wasilla, Alaska, as he researched his own book, which is due out later this month. 

McGinniss' attorney Dennis Holahan has acknowledged McGinniss sent a copy to media outlets and others in Alaska but said he told them not to reproduce any of it without the authors' permission. A message left for Holahan wasn't immediately returned Friday. 

Bailey's book was published in May though Morris and Devon have said they struggled to find a publisher. Morris said in an interview that he believes tens of thousands of copies of the draft manuscript were downloaded after the leak and said the manuscript became "one of the most Googled stories" in the world. He said he hired attorneys and cease-and-desist orders went to publications and file-share sites.

I know that many of you feel very frustrated at how all of this played out, and yes there is reason to be especially pissed off at certain parties, but I would still discourage any of you from cancelling your pre-orders of "The Rogue."

Joe CAN be a curmudgeonly pain in the ass, but he is ALSO a very fine author, and his book may be perhaps the best, and most damaging, one written about the Grizzled Mama.

Update: It looks like Andrew Sullivan agrees with me about Joe's book.

But having now read Joe McGinniss's "The Rogue," I can safely say that reality is about to re-attach to her. Finally! Some actual, reported, unafraid journalism on this farce of a candidate. Pre-order it now.