From electoral-vote.com:

More on Troopergate
Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin is formally under investigation for potential abuse of power. TPM has a timeline of what happened when. The Washington Post is now also investigating the story. with reporters up in Alaska talking to the principals. First reports show that Palin was much more deeply involved in trying to fire her brother-in-law (who was engaged in a bitter child custody dispute with her sister) than she previously admitted. The Republican-controlled state legislature has appointed a former prosecutor, Steve Branchflower, to investigate. What started out as a scoop in the blogosphere is now becoming major national news. If it turns out that Palin abused her gubernatorial power and then lied about it, it will hurt her reputation and raise questions about McCain's judgment. If she is entirely innocent, it is in her interest to get the facts out as fast as possible, volunteer for lie detector tests, and get this story out of the way immediately. At the very least, it is black cloud hanging over her head until it has been resolved.

The story doesn't end here. After firing Monegan, Palin appointed Charles Kopp, the Kenai chief of police to be the new commissioner of public safety. Kopp lasted two weeks, resigning July 25, 2008 in a swirl of charges relating to a 2005 complaint that he sexually harassed a woman and was reprimanded for it. The facts will no doubt be dribbling out in the coming weeks as they always do in cases like this, but at the very least two things stand out. First, the charges about Palin trying to fire her brother-in-law were serious enough for the Republican-controlled legislature to hire a heavyweight retired prosecutor to look into them. Second, Palin didn't do a very good job of vetting Kopp if whatever he did in 2005 was serious enough that he lasted only two weeks on the job. What does that say about her ability to make appointments?

While pundits of all stripes on national TV who never heard of Palin until Friday are blathering all manner of nonsense about her, both good and bad, the power of the Internet allows you to get a jump on them. Alaska newspapers have been following her closely for a year and a half, of course. The most respected source is the Anchorage Daily News (www.adn.com). It has many stories on her, for example, this one. If you want to know what the Lyda Green, the president of the state senate and a Republican and John Harris, the speaker of the state house and also a Republican, think about her, check out this story.

I wouldn't at this time call this "major national news". Possibly in the next couple of weeks it might be. But there are much bigger national media stories currently mainly Hurricane Gustav, Tropical Storm Hanna, and the RNC shuffling/minimizing/freezing the GOP convention in Minnesota.

Might it eventually be a story on the radar of the National media? Maybe but I doubt we hear more on this story in earnest until the VP debates.

If there's a real story there with Palin, trust me, it will come out shortly.

Andrew

Strange times, man.