Washington Post reporter Dan Balz suggests in his piece this morning that Palin’s resignation “has freed her to begin another phase of her life,” but questions whether that action will “put additional limits on her ability to rise further.”

Food for thought from DNC National Press Secretary Hari Sevugan: The fact Sarah Palin became a national punch line makes it's understandable that she'd want a do-over, but to think the perceptions of her as '”not ready for prime time” won't carry over after abruptly quitting is folly -- it only reinforces that perception. You can't bail on Alaska once the going gets tough and then ask the American people to take you seriously as a national leader.

But it looks like she’s a little unclear on what her policy positions are. During the campaign, McCain-Palin campaign literature (check it out below) and the candidate herself (see the video) sang a totally different tune.

McCain-Palin said climate change was one of our biggest challenges:

THEN: “Global climate change is one of the greatest challenges confronting our country and our world today. We must act now to meet this challenge.”

NOW: She doesn’t even mention climate change her piece in the Post.

McCain-Palin proposed a market based cap-and-trade program to address climate change:

THEN: “They [McCain-Palin] have proposed a cap-and-trade system that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions while encouraging the development of low-cost compliance options. A climate cap-and-trade mechanism would set a limit on greenhouse gas emissions and allow entities to buy and sell rights to emit, similar to the successful acid rain trading program of the early 1990s. The key feature of this mechanism is that it allows the market to decide and encourage the lowest-cost compliance options.”

NOW: Palin wants to “…responsibly tap the resources that God created right underfoot on American soil” and drill in the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

McCain-Palin said a market-based system would strengthen our economy:

THEN: ”John McCain and Sarah Palin will establish a market-based system to curb greenhouse gas emissions, mobilize innovative technologies, and strengthen the economy.”

NOW: Palin claims, cap-and-trade (which is part of President Obama’s plan) “…is an enormous threat to our economy. It would undermine our recovery over the short term and would inflict permanent damage.”

Palin has been spending more time in the lower 48. Maybe she's been taking lessons from Mitt Romney?

Even Ross' opponents in the Legislature had said only a few days ago that he had enough support to be confirmed despite huge opposition from Native groups, his calling gays "degenerates" in the 1990s, and allegations that he made offensive comments about women. But a tipping point appeared to come this week when he gave what lawmakers called bad and politicized legal advice to Palin about a fight she's having with lawmakers over a state Senate appointment.

The Legislature similarly rejected another Palin nominee for Board of Fisheries, though the 42-16 vote was even more lopsided.

Begich’s win was called by The Associated Press on Tuesday night and hands Democrats a 58th seat, with two GOP-held seats still outstanding. A large portion of absentee ballots delayed the result.

Stevens’s campaign said in a statement: “Given the number of ballots that remain to be counted, it is apparent the election has been decided and Mayor Begich has been elected.

Meet Senator-elect Mark Begich.

Stevens, a lawyer who once served in the Justice Department, argued an interesting legal theory: it is not a conviction until the appeals process is over.

"I've not been convicted yet," Stevens said Thursday in a meeting with the editorial board of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. "There's not a black mark by my name yet, until the appeal is over and I am finally convicted, if that happens. If that happens, of course I'll do what's right for Alaska and for the Senate. ... I don't anticipate it happening, and until it happens I do not have a black mark."

Call it the "Black Mark Theory" -- one he reiterated in his debate last night with Democratic candidate for Senate, Mark Begich:

Stevens reiterated that position during a televised debate late Thursday night, declaring early in the give-and-take with Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich, "I have not been convicted of anything."

To top it off, Stevens essentially called John McCain and Sarah Palin political opportunists who were insincere in their calls for him to resign.

The senator said Gov. Sarah Palin and the other Republicans who have called on him to resign are only doing so for political gain, not because they are sincere. "I wouldn't hold it against them, I understand what they're doing, trying to get elected."

Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Senate Republican in history and patriarch of Alaska politics, was found guilty of felony charges for making false statements.

The verdict could spell the end of a 40-year Senate career for a man who rose to be one of the most dominant figures in the upper chamber and who helped transform Alaska in its 50 years of statehood. The verdict was reached after the jury deliberated since Wednesday and found the 84-year-old senator guilty of failing to report more than $250,000 in gifts from Bill Allen, the former head of Veco Corp., and other friends.

The jury did not seem to buy the explanation from Stevens that Allen showered him with gifts he didn't want and was unaware of, and that he believed the $160,000 he gave to another contractor covered all costs for the home renovations.

The report offers a scathing critique of the Guard's alleged lack of assistance -- particularly with health care -- for soldiers returning from overseas deployments. It asserts the Guard was sent to fight without proper systems in place to handle its returning vets and urges deployments to cease until the situation is fixed.

"As a result of inadequate leadership from the Governor of Alaska, among others, the Alaska National Guard has an inadequate understanding of the full range of post-combat issues," the report says.

Governor Palin's response? Attack the report. Apparently, any report published in Alaska about Sarah Palin's performance as governor is a political hatchet job. Last week, the McCain/Palin campaign attacked the investigation into "Troopergate" as a partisan hit job, then when the Branchflower report found her to have abused her power, Sarah Palin denied the report's findings, claiming she was cleared of abusing her power.

A subcontractor who worked on Sen. Ted Stevens’s home testified Wednesday that he risked “business suicide” if he crossed the Alaska Republican’s powerful friend and tried to collect an outstanding debt from the senator.

Augie Paone, who used to co-own a contracting firm called Christensen Builders, said he would have pushed to collect the nearly $20,000 directly from the senator, but he worried about retaliation from Bill Allen, the senator’s former close friend and owner of the influential Veco oil-services firm.

“I thought about sending a bill to the senator [but that would be] business suicide on my side if I did that,” Paone said, speaking of Allen’s political influence and the power of his 5,000-employee company over Paone’s five-person contracting firm.

“I knew I was in between a rock and a hard place — rather than to supersede his authority, I thought it was better business sense on my side to just leave it alone,” Paone said.

In Part I, Palin talked about the economic crisis but could not come up with an example of John McCain pushing for regulation.

An excerpt from Part II, set to air tonight, Palin attempted to explain the "Alaska's proximity to Russia = foreign policy experience" argument.

Sen. Ted Stevens used one of Alaska's biggest employers as his "own personal handyman service" and never paid Veco Corp. for hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of renovations to his home, a federal prosecutor charged Thursday as she outlined the government's case for finding the Alaska Republican guilty of lying on financial disclosure forms.

"You'll learn that the defendant never paid Veco a dime for the work on the chalet. Not a penny," the Justice Department's lead prosecutor, Brenda Morris, told jurors in the opening minutes of Stevens' trial. [...]

"If the defendant needed an electrician, he contacted Veco. If the defendant needed a plumber, he contacted Veco," she said. "We reach for the Yellow Pages, he reached for Veco."

Meanwhile, the McCain campaign continued to dodge questions about whether John McCain or Sarah Palin support Stevens, or scandal-plagued Rep. Don Young (R-AK).

Updated: The defense argues that Senator Stevens doesn't live in Alaska:

Brendan Sullivan, defense attorney for Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), made an admission today that probably isn't going to help his client's re-election changes - Ted Stevens doesn't really live in Alaska, the state he has represented in the Senate for the last 40 years.

Gov. Sarah Palin is unlikely to speak with an independent counsel hired by Alaska lawmakers to review the firing of her public safety commissioner, a spokesman for Republican presidential candidate John McCain said Monday.

"The partisan presidential campaign of McCain/Palin has interfered and is picking partisan targets to smear in order to make this investigation look like something it isn't," said Patti Higgins, chairwoman of the Alaska Democratic Party. "Rather than cooperating with the investigation, the Republican presidential campaign is doing everything it can to stall and smear."

We've seen this movie before and as the Democratic vice presidential nominee, Senator Joe Biden, said yesterday, "the sequel is always worse than the original."

"Between offering more of the same lies and distortions on the campaign trail and sharing more of the same ethics problems, John McCain's running mate is proving to be the next Dick Cheney," said DNC spokeswoman Karen Finney. "The last thing the American people want or need is more of the same failed policies and broken politics that have dominated Washington under the Bush-McCain years, but that is exactly what John McCain and Sarah Palin are promising."

To view the new, relaunched website, click here: www.TheNextCheney.com. A sample of what you'll find on Sarah Palin on www.TheNextCheney.com can be found below:

For Or Against The Bridge To Nowhere? Which Is It?

Less than two years ago on the campaign trail, Palin actually ran for governor on a pledge to support wasting federal money on the so-called Bridge to Nowhere. Once Congress killed the project, she kept the money anyway. But today she claims she was against it all along. Which is it?

Friendliness With Big Oil Pays Big Dividends For Palin

Palin claims she stood up to Big Oil, but that's not what the oil industry lobbyists who poured thousands into her last campaign would call it.

Standing Up To Special Interests…With A Little Help From Lobbyists

As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist tied to indicted Bridge to Nowhere sponsor Ted Stevens to get the tiny town millions in federal earmarks. Putting a Big Oil lobbyist on her ticket as lieutenant governor gave a big boost to her run for governor, too.

Playing The Earmark Game To Win

As mayor, Palin hired Wasilla's first federal lobbyist to win the town tens of millions in federal earmarks. As governor, Palin has requested hundreds of millions in federal earmarks for Alaska. As a vice presidential candidate, she says she's opposed earmarks all along. Oh really?

An Ethics Record To Rival Dick Cheney

Dick Cheney has had a lifetime to accumulate a reputation for shady ethics, but Sarah Palin is catching up fast. Just like the politician she hopes to replace, Palin has come under fire for politicizing top offices of law enforcement in both City Hall and the Statehouse.

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I am not here to speak against Senator McCain. I am here to endorse Barack Obama for the presidency of the United States of America because I am an American first. And as Americans, each of us has one precious vote—and a responsibility to cast that vote for the candidate we believe will best meet America’s challenges and seize America’s opportunities.

I will be casting mine for the candidate who possesses a keen intellect, a pragmatic idealism and a resulting wisdom which is sorely needed in America today. I will be casting my vote for Barack Obama.

We, Americans, must have a foreign policy based on strength, logic and sound judgment. We will get that from Barack Obama.

We, Americans, must have economic policies based on what’s best for hard working families—not lobbyists, or special interests, or just the very wealthy—but for the vast majority of our people. We will get that from Barack Obama.

We, Americans, must have an energy policy which leads us to energy independence and stability. We will get that from Barack Obama.

This cornerstone of our economic security and national security cannot be left to shifts in the market or the whims of hostile dictators. America’s energy policy must be based on self reliance and the resources we have right here at home: from domestically produced natural gas, including liquefied natural gas from Alaska, to biomass, wind and solar—renewable, alternative energy sources, American energy sources.

In the end, I’m here tonight because I know the change we need requires a leader with a steely resolve, a powerful vision for our future and a passion for helping working people. The man you will nominate tomorrow is that leader-America’s next great president, Barack Obama.

"This is an indictment for failure to disclose gifts that are controversial in terms of whether they were or were not gifts. It's not bribery; it's not some corruption; it's not some extreme felony."

To quote Mitt Romney, "I'm not a lawyer" but I'm pretty certain that's not right at all...

Prosecutors say the Alaska Republican accepted more than $250,000 in house renovations and gifts from contractors but didn't disclose them on Senate financial records.

Stevens' legal team asked the judge to move the trial to Alaska, where the senator has been a political patron since before statehood. Attorney Sullivan also asked that the trial date be speeded up to give Stevens his day in court before the Nov. 4 election.

The trial is scheduled for September 24.