‘Troopergate’ report to be published

All eyes in the US presidential campaign will turn to Alaska today as the report on VP wannabe Sarah Palin's conduct in the 'troopergate' affair is published today. Palin, the Alaskan governor, is accused of sacking a state official to pursue a family vendetta.

If Palin is censured by the report, which is being prepared for the state legislature by former prosecutor Stephen Blanchflower, it will be a major embarrassment to the Republican's presidential candidate John McCain, who plucked Palin from obscurity to be his running mate.

Palin and her supporters have claimed that the investigation is politically motivated, and that Walter Monegan, Alaska's public safety officer, was dismissed by the governor in a row over the state budget.

But it is alleged that Monegan was fired after he refused himself to dismiss a state trooper who was married to Palin's sister and who was going through a messy and violent divorce.

It is rumoured that Palin's husband Todd will take the blame for the trooper's dismissal, with affadavits showing he told Monegan to sack the man. Whatever happens, it is an unwelcome sideshow for the republicans as they seek to battle back in the polls against Barack Obama.