But you can decide for yourself, as I’ve just been sent a copy of the indictment. I haven’t had a chance to read it myself; comments very welcome.

• Boston Globe, Alaska paid for Palin daughters to travel,

  “Governor Sarah Palin charged the state for her children to travel with her, including to events where they were not invited, and she later amended expense reports to specify that they were on official business.

• Politico, RNC shells out $150K for Palin fashion,

  The Republican National Committee has spent more than $150,000 to clothe and accessorize vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and her family since her surprise pick by John McCain in late August.
  
  According to financial disclosure records, the accessorizing began in early September and included bills from Saks Fifth Avenue in St. Louis and New York for a combined $49,425.74.
  
  The records also document a couple of big-time shopping trips to Neiman Marcus in Minneapolis, including one $75,062.63 spree in early September.

If government is illegitimate, if taxes are theft (rather than the price of civilization), why not milk it for all you can get?

That said, Palin is a piker. She should get lessons in how to steal billions from Cheney.

But of course, it’s the party elite, not the rank and file, who get the cash. Which is why we read stuff like Republicans Disgusted By RNC Spending On Palin. Tin-eared GOP spokesperson Tracey Schmitt didn’t help matters with the implausible claim that, “It was always the intent that the clothing go to a charitable purpose after the campaign.” Which makes Palin sound even more like Marie Antoinette.

For a mental cleansing, try Katrina Vanden Heuvel Responds to Bachman’s Call for McCarthy like Investigation of Members of Congress

It comes complete with Patrick Buchanan (!) being less McCarthyite than Rep. Bachmann. Ol’ Pat understands where the wind blows….

The worse the polls for the GOP (and I mean the party, not just McCain), the more were going to see that political phenomenon known as “the cornered rat”. There are already reports of a reporter being stomped on at a Palin rally, of racists mailers around the country, and of GOP robo-calls suggesting Sen. Obama is terrorist. And we still have two and half weeks to the election.

Now does he dump her from the ticket? I’m guessing he doesn’t.

Palin then went on to blame Katie Couric’s questions for her “less-than-successful interview with kinda mainstream media.” At that, Palin supporters turned on reporters in the press area, waving thunder sticks and shouting abuse. Others hurled obscenities at a camera crew. One Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African American sound man for a network and told him, “Sit down, boy.”

McCain/Palin taking off the gloves hoods

It will only get uglier if they get more desperate.

I wrote yesterday about the breathtaking attempts to fix an election in Mississippi by hiding the Senate race on the ballot in an effort to discourage voters. (See Republicans Acting Like Peronists — Or Maybe Chavezites.)

This ruse is so breathtakingly illegal in a state whose election statute requires the federal elections to come first — in the clearest possible terms — that the attempt seems destined to fail in court (it’s currently enjoined pending a hearing).

But that has not stopped the desperate Republicans, fearing their party’s brand: the latest wheeze is to remove party affiliations from the candidates in the Senate race (just the Senate race, not all of them). And the law appears to be silent on this tactic, so they might get away with it.

This is the sort of behavior that supports the theory that the US is sliding into the sort of corrupt governance that used to be the hallmark of South American republics. Courts can cure many symptoms of the disease, and indeed may cure this one. But the deeper problem is the number of people in power, or grasping for power, who have neither honor nor scruples, neither shame nor any serious fear of consequences. And who’s to say that this is not the better reading of the last decade’s — or two decades’ — history? OK, three decades.

Do something.

(Do I hear four? five?)

The OSC is headed by a presidential appointee with a five-year term named Scott J. Bloch. That he has been somnolent in this job is beyond dispute. That he has been positively active in sabotaging investigations that might annoy the Bush administration has been repeatedly alleged, and has even led to a formal complaint charging sabotage of investigations and retaliation against those who sought to pursue them.

Well, guess what? NPR says the FBI just raided the OSC, and secured a separate warrant for Bloch’s home.

The FBI’s action isn’t about the Rove case — it’s about other alleged misdeeds — but who will bet that the FBI’s actions will not derail whatever little action there was in the Rove area?