The story assumes the Alaska investigation will come out saying Palin misused authority for personal vendetta, but there will be extremely strong republican pressure to either delay the report or have it report no abuse just before the election. Her vendetta behavior may endear her to faithful followers of Bush/Cheney/Rove. The denial of involvement and then having to retract the denial when evidence shows up may be damning evidence of bushian behavior to democrats, plus any Alaska investigation result showing abuse. Since the big corporate press is mostly ignoring the scandal, it may have no effect on the unwashed uninformed.

This is precisely the kind of story Talking Points Memo does best. Josh Marshall et al. are one step ahead of the MSM again. Palin's potential misconduct in the firing of an Alaskan public safety commissioner received past-the-jump mention in the Washington Post and the Anchorage Daily News articles on her selection. I doubt TPM will let this one slip below the radar.

This opinion piece has modest journalistic value. It is a typical Democratic party attack piece with no effort to be balanced. A balanced story would have noted that Sen Obama's close friend and major financial benefactor Tony Rezko will be sentenced on October 28. That is likely to get bigger hgeadlines, deservedly, than this item.