Sarah Palin faces political and personal meltdown

Sarah Palin is facing political and personal meltdown in the wake of Joe McGinniss's explosive tell-all biography of her, according to the National Enquirer. The US tabloid is reporting that her husband Todd is planning to file for divorce and that her political advisers are telling her that a White House bid would now be "suicidal".

McGinniss's book, published this week, claims that Palin had an affair with an NBA basketball star, Glen Rice, as well as with one of Todd's business partners, and also that she had snorted cocaine off an oil barrel with her husband and smoked marijuana with one of her college professors.

The Enquirer says Todd is "fuming" over the revelations, especially the confirmation of his wife's affair with Brad Hanson, with whom the 'First Dude' had run a snowmobile dealership before discovering the pair's infidelity.

"Todd and Sarah were headed for divorce, but Sarah got pregnant soon after, so they decided to stay together," Sarah Palin's brother-in-law Mike Wooten said when the story first started doing the rounds in 2008.

Todd is also said to be furious that his wife's brother, Chuck 'Chuckie' Heath Jr, was quoted in the book as saying that Todd and Sarah's marriage was over. "The final straw was McGinniss quoting Sarah's brother Chuckie telling a friend they don't have a marriage," a friend told the paper.

"Todd felt as if he was stabbed in the back by his own brother-in-law after 23 years of being married to the guy's sister, and having five kids together."

The damage to Palin's political career appears to be fatal. Support from the Republican right was already leaking towards Michelle Bachmann and Rick Perry, the new Tea Party darlings, before the book came out.

Now the biography has exposed "all her lies, cover-ups and secrets" according to a source close to Palin quoted in the Enquirer. "As a result, she has been told by her advisers that it would be political suicide to announce a White House candidacy. The press and her opponents would have a field day digging into the dirty details of her background."

Sarah Palin has yet to comment either on McGinniss's book or on the Enquirer's follow-up story. ·