The Palins Are Getting Divorced,As Are Mrs. Other McCain and I

(BUMPED; SEE UPDATES BELOW.) Also, it's entirely possible that George W. and Laura Bush -- perhaps even George H.W. and Barbara Bush -- are heading for "Splitsville," if we accept such "proof" as we find in the latest edition of Star magazine:

"Sarah and Todd are fighting all the time," Mercede Johnston — sister of Levi Johnston, ex-boyfriend of Sarah's eldest daughter, Bristol — tells Star in an exclusive interview. "When they do, Todd often ends up sleeping on the couch at their home in Wasilla. Bristol used to tell Levi that her parents would argue and bicker over the littlest things, like who was supposed to take out the trash or wash the dishes."
Levi, the father of Bristol's 7-month-old son, Tripp, recently told RadarOnline.com that Sarah and Todd have had marital trouble "from day one," and that he believed their escalating problems were the reason behind her mysterious decision to resign as governor of Alaska last month with more than a year left in her term.
His sister Mercede predicts: "If they ended their marriage within the next year, I wouldn't be surprised at all. It really seems to me their marriage is just a sham for the cameras now!"

Ri-iiiight. The trashy sister of that scumsucking vermin Levi Johnston (a/k/a "Ricky Hollywood" ) is such an expert on marriage, y'know.

Feel free to ask Mrs. Other McCain how recently -- and if memory serves, it was week before last -- she gave me the kind of spousal ultimatum that involves an offer to help me pack my bags. We've made it past the 20-year mark, and I'm determined to hold true to my vow of "till death do us part," even if sometimes Mrs. Other McCain also helpfully offers to assist me with the "death" part.

Hang in there, Todd and Sarah: I put my journalistic credibility on the line for you. Like I said this morning:

I don't care if Todd Palin hikes the Appalachian Trail to Argentina or Sarah Palin flies to Vegas and spends Labor Day weekend with the Chippendales dancers. As long as the Palins don't get a divorce, the continuation of their marriage proves that Jesse Griffin is a liar, Dennis Zaki is a floppy-shoed clown, and I'm solid gold, baby.

Think of the children! (And me, of course.) Also, everybody needs to hit the tip jar today, just to remind my wife what a solid-gold guy she married.

UPDATE 3 p.m.: Jesse Griffin denies having anything to do with the Star story:

It looks like Mercede has been talking to them again. And just to put the potential rumor to rest Mercede is NOT one of my sources.

He thus denies an accusation no one ever made. But "Gryphen" already told us who his sources are:

The operator of the Immoral Minority blog admits that he is in regular contact with one Rex Butler and Tank Jones. Rex Butler is the high-priced attorney who is handling legal issues for the Johnston family.

The Rex Butler/Tank Jones angle, of course, leads straight to "Ricky Hollywood," and it looks like the whole grubby Johnston clan is feeding at the same trough of slime:

Butler magically appeared in court to defend Sherry Johnston on her drug-dealing related arrest -- she originally was so broke she had to get a public defender.

Which, of course, leads directly to the Florida headquarters of . . . the Star:

How does Sherry Johnston afford an attorney like Rex Butler? How do the Johnstons get the money to zoom around the United States giving interviews? How do they pay their rent/mortgage or even the payments on Levi Johnston's truck . . .
Airplane tickets from Anchorage to Los Angeles and New York run a minimum of around $700 per person, and that doesn't include hotel stays and other transportation. Trips from Anchorage to Florida, where Mercede Johnston claimed (on Larry King's show) to have traveled in March, are running around $1200 round trip.
They have claimed on television that they are not receiving compensation for their appearances. So what gives? Levi has no job, his mother has no job, his sister has no job, so who is paying for this "Smear Palin" tour? If you recall the Larry King interview with the Johnstons, you will remember that Mercede Johnston mentioned that she had recently returned from Florida. Why Florida? Well, Florida is where Star Magazine has its headquarters. Hold on a second, Mercede gave an interview to Star Magazine!

You see? It doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to figure this out: The Star is paying its sources, just like the Enquirer pays its sources, which creates a sort of commodity market for anti-Palin dirt in Alaska. As I said:

Meanwhile, here is Jesse Griffin, one of the left-wing Alaska blogospheric myrmidons who've spent the past 11 months trashing Palin online for the amusement of PDS-affected "progressives" worldwide. Now that Palin's resigned as governor and the spotlight has shifted, the blog-o-bucks are harder to get for the Alaskasphere, and everybody -- ex-staffers, "Ricky Hollywood," Griffin, his blog buddies -- is trying to cash in before the sell-by date expires on this dirt-dishing bonanza.

So what you're seeing here, as any Hayekian would surmise, is a final frenzy of activity before the closing bell on the Anchorage Slimeball Exchange.

UPDATE 3:45 p.m.: Oh, it keeps getting better and better, as Griffin updates to assist with the process of elimination that increasingly seems to point the finger at Butler and/or Jones:

Also I did not talk to either Mercede OR Levi before I made my post, and I called some of the other media outlets working this story and asked them if the Johnston family was one of their sources and they said no. So when the Palin-bots come after this family I am here to tell you it just another example of attacking the messenger instead of addressing the validity of the information.

Meanwhile, we learn that last October, Rex Butler was smearing Palin as a racist:

"Blacks don't have the levels of access to the governor and state commissioners as with past administrations," said attorney Rex Butler, an Alaska resident since 1983. "It seems the posture of (Palin's) administration with Blacks is: Don't need them—don’t worry about them."

I'm betting that Butler's financial status is not entirely opaque. Interesting things might turn up in that regard. "Means, motive, opportunity," as they say, and I wonder if the Alaska bar association might be interested in the question of whether Butler's been playing the role of a libel broker in the Anchorage Slimeball Exchange, in which Jesse Griffin seems to have been such an active participant. Keep updating, Jesse!

Expect further updates . . .