The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin (Leaked Excerpts by Joe McGinniss)

On Sale At Amazon The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin by Joe McGinniss

In a sign of future Rogue controversy, the Chicago Tribune pulled the comic strip Doonesbury (posted below) because it deals with the book Joe McGinniss reportedly only offered advance copies to - three people: Andrew Sullivan, Garry Trudeau, and Rosanne Cash. The Tribune defended its decision saying, “The remarks are serious enough that we cannot publish the strip without more information, context and a response from Palin.”

Some excerpts from The Rogue that Trudeau includes are a Palin source saying the governor would announce, “I got on my biggest push-up bra and I’m gonna get what I want,” and that Palin “isn’t comfortable in the presence of dark-skinned people.”

Click photo to enlarge

Say What?

"She emerges, holding Trig. Once the TV cameras and still photographers have had their fill, she hands him off to an assistant, who soon puts him down on the asphalt parking lot and lets him crawl. The lot is covered with broken glass, cigarette butts, and old chewing gum, and Trig is barefoot. Eventually Piper comes along and puts him in a stroller." ~ from The Rogue, by Joe McGinniss

Quotes from the Daily Beast

Palin Had a One-Night Stand With a Basketball Star?

As a TV sports reporter, Sarah Palin allegedly got up close and personal with future NBA player Glen Rice back in 1987. Author Joe McGinniss writes that she and Rice had a one-night stand nine months before she married Todd Palin. Rice was then a junior at the University of Michigan and had come to town for the Thanksgiving “Great Alaska Shootout” basketball tournament when he met Sarah Heath, and things allegedly got hot and heavy in Sarah’s younger sister’s dorm room at the University of Alaska Anchorage. The New York Times obtained a copy of the book, which also cites a friend saying the young Sarah Heath “had a fetish for black guys for a while.” In 2011, McGinniss spoke with Rice about their tryst. While Rice avoids getting into specifics, he says their relationship was “respectful” and refers to Palin as “a sweetheart.” McGinniss apparently prods further: “So you never had the feeling she felt bad about having sex with a black guy?” One of Palin’s friends at the time is allegedly quoted in the book saying, “I remember Sarah feeling pretty good that she’d been with a black basketball star.” Rice later went on to play for the Miami Heat and Los Angeles Lakers, and was also married to the Real Housewives of Miami’s Christy Rice.

Palin Slept With Todd’s Business Partner?

A pre-marriage dalliance is one thing, but sleeping with your husband’s business partner could cause some serious marital strife. The Rogue repeats allegations originally published by the National Enquirer in 2008 that Palin had an affair with Todd’s snowmobile dealership partner Brad Hanson in the mid ’90s, prompting Todd to shut down their business. The Enquirer claimed the affair took a toll on Todd and Sarah’s marriage, saying Todd complained to friends about their troubled relationship at the time. Both Sarah and Hanson denied all reports when they came out.

Palin Snorted Cocaine and Smoked Pot?

If allegations about Sarah Palin’s wild streak are true, then boy, was it a wild streak. McGinniss alleges that Palin snorted cocaine off a 55 gallon oil drum—while snowmobiling. A family friend of the mama grizzly reportedly says in the book that Todd also used cocaine and was “on the end of the straw plenty.” While allegations of cocaine use are in stark contrast to Palin’s traditional family persona, McGinniss also writes that Palin smoked marijuana with a professor while in college.

Troopergate Exposed Palin’s ‘Vengeful, Obsessive Nature’?

One of Palin’s first public scandals, Troopergate, seems like such a long time ago, but that doesn’t stop McGinniss from rehashing it. In 2008, Palin was accused of having her sister’s former husband fired as a state trooper following their divorce, as well as allegedly firing former public safety director Walt Monegan for refusing to fire Wooten. In October 2008, a state panel found that Palin violated ethics law, but the allegations still dogged her months later, and eventually she announced in July 2009 that she would resign—partly, she said, because of all the money she had to spend investigating all the ethics complaints made against her. McGinniss confirmed on his website that he spoke to Monegan, who said Palin had left him in the dark about why he was being fired, saying, “If she would have said, ‘Walt, I don’t like your hair,’ that would have made more sense.” McGinniss writes: “Sarah said she’d fired Monegan because he’d displayed a ‘rogue mentality.’ Sarah apparently felt that ‘going rogue’ was acceptable only when she did it herself.” Further, McGinniss writes in The Rogue that “the Troopergate scandal is worth investigating in detail because of Sarah’s actions, and those of her husband on her behalf, expose so clearly the vengeful, obsessive nature of the person who lurks behind the mask of sexiness and chirpy insouciance.”