Yes, the Obama waffles, which were pulled from the Value Voters Summit after sparking controversy back in September. “They’re hard to find,” said Enten. “If you’ve got one, hold onto it!” Fortunately, the waffle-makers are still online and have added Sarah Palin mooseburger helper to their catalog.

The governor’s office wouldn’t say this week how much she owes in back taxes for meal money, or whether she intends to continue to receive the per diem allowance. As of December, she was still charging the state for meals and incidentals.

“The amount of taxes owed is a private matter,” Sharon Leighow, Palin’s spokeswoman, said in an e-mail. “If the governor collects future per diem, those documents would be a matter of public record.”

We’ve actually known about this since last October. Here’s an opportunity for conservatives to wind the anti-Daschle and anti-Geithner cases into one big case for tax simplification, but based on a quick scan of the blogs it seems like they’re ignoring it.

The Palin moment … exposed the vulnerability of the Left to a challenge to its most cherished claims—as the sole representative of the interests of the working class and the only legitimate path to political power for an ambitious woman.

Yes, of course. Four months before he chose Palin as his running mate, Sen. John McCain voted against extending the statute of limitations for pay discrimination complaints. Two months after the election, McCain voted against it again. But McCain elevated a rather mediocre politician that most women will never meet onto a losing presidential ticket. I don’t know how the Left can compete with this.

Bristol Palin, the 18-year-old daughter of former Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, gave birth on Saturday to a healthy 7 lb., 7 oz., baby boy in Palmer, Alaska.

“We think it’s wonderful,” said Colleen Jones, the sister of Bristol’s grandmother Sally Heath, who confirmed the news. “The baby is fine and Bristol is doing well. Everyone is excited.”

Bristol Palin’s pregnancy became an issue when it was revealed during the presidential campaign, shortly after Sen. John McCain named Sarah Palin as his running mate in August. Bristol and the baby’s father, Levi Johnston, plan to wed next year, according to People.com.

And the baby’s name?

In keeping with the apparent Palin family tradition of giving boys unusual names that begin with “Tr,” such as Bristol’s older brother Track and younger brother Trig, the newborn will be known as Tripp Easton Mitchell Johnston.

(Via Playbook)

Murkowski, appointed to the Senate in 2002 by her father when he took office as governor of Alaska, is up for re-election in 2010. (Murkowski won her seat the old-fashioned way in 2004.) In an interview with Politico, Murkowski warned Palin that she shouldn’t even consider a short stop in the Senate as a means to the White House. But what if Palin does anyway?

“I can guarantee it would be a very tough election,” Murkowski said in an interview.

Murkowski isn’t kidding. The two arctic pols have a turbulent history. In 2006, Palin knocked Murkowksi’s father out of the Republican primary by essentially accusing then-sitting Gov. Frank Murkowski of corruption, lumping him in with more dubious characters in the state legislature. The message was appealing to voters who were sick of Murkowski’s tone-deaf moves, including appointing his own daughter to his Senate seat and flying around the state in a private jet.

While Lisa Murkowski might have beef with Palin, Palin’s got her own problems with Murkowski. When Lisa got the nod from her father to take his Senate seat, Palin was reportedly miffed.

But who would win in a match up?

Both women have high approval ratings in Alaska. Murkowski is particularly popular in rural parts of the state, while Palin has done well in the more highly-populated area surrounding Wasilla, her hometown.

The race would be close, one Republican consultant told Politico.

A key factor to keep in mind: seniority. Alaska depends on federal money to survive. That money tends to come easier the longer you’re representatives have been around Capitol Hill.  Stevens and Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) are famous at home and infamous nationally for their incredible ability to bring home billions worth of bacon.

With Stevens out, Alaskans might not want to replace Murkowski with Palin, knowing that Palin would likely be eager to move on in just a few years:

“My feeling is that Alaskans wouldn’t respond to that very well, especially Republicans, if she takes on Lisa and she starts seniority all over again,” [David} Dittman, [a Republican pollster] said. “I think it would be tough for Sarah to do that and justify it.”

A local TV network in Georgia reports that Palin attracted fans from as far away as New Mexico to hear her stump for Sen. Saxby Chambliss in today’s run-off election, even though they can’t vote in Georgia.

It’s unknown how many out-of-towners were at these events or the total crowd size. The local outlet says Palin attracted a larger crowd yesterday than Chambliss did the day before. During the presidential campaign, Palin’s reported crowd numbers were inflated at times, embellishing her ability to draw astonishingly large crowds.

But the actual numbers don’t matter much. She may be drumming up more interest than the candidates in the race, as well as the multitude of other high-profile Republicans stumping for Chambliss. (CNN doesn’t have Mitt Romney on repeat today, for example.)

Will Palin be the GOP nominee in 2012? Lots can happen between now and then. But one things for certain, she’s not disappearing any time soon.

(Via Eric Kleefeld of TPM Election Central.)

Gov. Sarah Palin (flickr)

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin made lemonade out of lemons today by auctioning off on the Internet the fancy wardrobe purchased for her failed vice-presidential run, and raking in more than a million dollars — which she immediately donated to the Needy Governors’ Winter Clothing Fund.

The feisty four-eyed political phenomenon evidently doesn’t plan to stop there: Papers have reportedly been filed for a new corporation specifically meant to cash in on her sudden fame with myriad money-making projects.

For example, hubby Todd will be scooping up snow from the lawn of the Palin house in Wasilla, Alaska, and molding it into souvenir “genuine Alaska Toddballs” to be sold for $10 apiece to spectators at January’s Washington inauguration ceremonies to throw at President Barack Obama.

Black Ice, a consulting arm, will specialize in personal vendettas, using covert ops to go after in-laws, friends, employees -– anyone who, as the prospectus puts it, “ticks you off.” A character-assassination campaign aimed at eliminating Arizona Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz,) as a future GOP presidential candidate is allegedly the firm’s first assignment, paid for with uncashed Palin dry-cleaning, limo and lunch vouchers from the recent election contest.

Certain projects seem intended to both make money and further Palin’s political career. Although a plan to trade her governorship, her tanning bed and Todd for the disgraced Ted Stevens’ Senate seat was shot down by the Alaska Supreme Court, insiders mutter Palin may still go through with her idea of performing a “Dance of the Seven Bath Towels” for a private audience at $1,000 per head.

Bruce McCall, a humorist, is a regular contributor to The New Yorker and Vanity Fair. He is the author of a new children’s book, “Marveltown.” His other books include “All Meat Looks Like South America: The World of Bruce McCall” and “Zany Afternoons.”

Gov. Sarah Palin (WDCpix)

The stunning run of leaks against Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin from the anonymous ranks of McCain campaign aides has finally elicited a response in kind. Members of the Palin entourage, who, while stunningly garbed in Dolce, would not allow their names to be used, have fired back against charges that Palin didn’t know Africa was a continent nor the names of the members of the North American Free Trade Association.

Sen. John McCain, several of these sources now confide, could not tell the difference between a coho and a chinook salmon, even when they were plainly broiled with no sauce. In addition, angry Palin aides charge, he has no idea of the location of the Tlingit Indian reservation, nor any idea how, when or why the Eagle Dance is performed.

McCain, Palin confidantes also charge, while their Franck Muller watches sparkle in the light, is absolutely clueless as to the route of the world-famous Iditarod sled-dog race.

Chinook salmon (Flickr: mgjefferies)

Palin had not been aware of McCain’s near-complete ignorance of basic Alaskan subjects before she agreed to sign on to his campaign, these sources tell people they meet, and had she known, she would have demanded even more expensive clothes to compensate for the embarrassment.

Harry Shearer is the host of the weekly radio show “Le Show,” the co-writer of “This Is Spinal Tap” and a musician and actor. His new album is “Songs of the Bushmen.”

It may not have gone down the way CNN originally reported. Scheunemann denies being fired, but the supposedly exculpatory explanation, delivered by campaign spokesman Michael Goldfarb, is that “Scheunemann’s campaign e-mail was cut off, and his blackberry was taken away late Friday,” making it something of a distinction without a difference. Of course, Goldfarb’s pre- and post-campaign day job is online editor for the Weekly Standard, so there’s a potential conflict of interest here.

But what’s going on?

One explanation is that neoconservatism is entering its third great search for a champion. Many have remarked that the imperialist strain in American foreign policy doesn’t have a natural political constituency, so neoconservatism has to graft itself onto a host, invest that host with its doctrinal heft, and promote that host’s futures once he or she becomes symbiotic with the movement.

It’s easy to forget that, before the 1996 election, Kristol and the Standard tried to make Gen. Colin L. Powell their champion, but when it became clear that Powell’s views were both deeply held and deeply hostile to neoconservatism, the Standard tore him down when he became President George W. Bush’s secretary of state.

The next host, whose views already harmonized well with the neocons, became Sen. John McCain. Only after 9/11 — and then, primarily by the grace of Dick Cheney — did the neocons promote Bush as a Great Man of History, for the simple reason that he embraced their vision as a reaction to the terrorist attacks.

And there’s the problem for them. Washington Republicans are rushing to distance themselves from the Iraq war, happy to push the blame onto the neocons for playing an outsize role in contributing to the Great Electoral Collapses of 2006 and 2008. Neoconservatism’s failures are both policy failures and, more damaging in the world of conservatism, electoral failures.

What conservative politician in his or her right mind would embrace neoconservatism now? And of that pool of available vessels, who could command an authentic constituency to glide the neocons back to power? Asked that way, the questions answer themselves, don’t they.

Over the last week, Standard writers have been promoting Palin at the McCain camp’s expense, unsubtly jumping horses mid-apocalypse. Most boldly, Standard executive editor Fred Barnes last week shanked senior McCain staffer Nicolle Wallace for the embarrassing story that Palin went on a high-end shopping spree with GOP money, saying Wallace was responsible. As TWI’s Ana Marie Cox reported for The Daily Beast, the McCain forces clapped back at Barnes and forced him to apologize on television. The Scheunemann migration to Palin — who reportedly wowed Kristol and Barnes during a 2007 cruise to Alaska, according to Jane Mayer of the New Yorker — fits the pattern rather neatly.

Palin is a return to the Bush or Dan Quayle (Kristol’s old boss) model: a vapid, ignorant politician with an angry streak. As Matt DeLong just pointed out, Fox’s Carl Cameron is reporting that Palin didn’t know that Africa was a continent and not a country, though that might come from McCain loyalists acting uncharitably. A segment of conservatism still champions Palin, even though it appears that Palin cost McCain support from independents who didn’t think her prepared to take over the presidency.

Whether conservatives will embrace Palin when they have policy-heavy and deeply-religious young alternatives like Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal remains to be seen, obviously. But Palin needs a policy platform if she wants to run for president — and the neoconservatives desperately need a political force they can ride back into power.

Gov. Sarah Palin (WDCpix)

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was more than prepared should terrorists and their sympathizers quit palling around long enough to throw the coming presidential election a curve and cheat her out of the vice presidency. She has already crafted a detailed plan for her future.

Step One is to resign as governor in favor of her husband, Todd, appointed by unanimous vote of the State Legislature after “a good old-fashioned Alaska-style blackmail blitz” using secret tape recordings, spy photos and paid stool-pigeon testimony.

“Todd and the whole gang will all be living rent-free in the governor’s mansion with room service,” Palin revealed, “and they have all volunteered to serve in at least two no-show jobs apiece, to help get Alaska’s employment figures way up there.”

Palin herself will be moving to the Lower 48 “to either cash in or cash out — I didn’t go to some elite school, so I’m not sure which. I do know I’ll be doing some teaching at either Harvard or Bob Jones University. It’s a toss-up right now between the School of International Law on one hand and Home Economics 101 on the other.”

The perky, crack moose shot also revealed that she is thinking seriously, “or as seriously as a gal like me can,” about establishing a chain of “Sarah Palin’s Shoot ‘n’ Sizzle” firing ranges under tanning lamps, located atop Wal-Mart stores nationwide.

Palin claims to be close to signing with a major publisher for her memoir, “to be written by a famous book author who has a real gift of gab. He says my life reads like a fairy tale and that I play a leading role in it from start to finish.”

On the agenda as well will be the Sarah Palin Foundation, a for-profit think tank with a mandate to think about how to secure a steady flow of cash contributions and free gasoline from Big Oil for ex-Alaskan governors while she is out of political office.

Meanwhile, Palin said that plans to borrow the Alaska state police as her personal security detail would be finalized “as soon as we can root out certain rotten apples.”

Bruce McCall, a humorist, is a regular contributor to The New Yorker and Vanity Fair. He is the author of “All Meat Looks Like South America: The World of Bruce McCall” and “Zany Afternoons.”