The Rogue: Palin’s ‘steamy interracial hookup’

THE FIRST leaks from an unauthorised biography of Sarah Palin claim she used cocaine and smoked marijuana as a young woman, had an affair with her husband Todd's business partner, and a "steamy interracial hookup" with basketball star Glen Rice.

The revelations from The Rogue by Joe McGinniss, due to be published on September 20, could finally end any chance that Palin will run in the Republican presidential primaries.  

McGinniss, 68, is a respected author of novels and non-fiction books, including one on the marketing campaign surrounding Richard Nixon's presidential campaign in 1968. He has spent three years researching Palin's background for his new book – and last year even moved in to the house next door the former Alaska governor in an apparent attempt to dig for dirt.

The National Enquirer, quoting "publishing sources familiar" with the book, reveals that McGinniss claims Palin had a "fetish" for black men. During a 1987 visit to her younger sister, who was studying at the University of Alaska, Palin "had a steamy interracial hookup" with Rice, who would later play for the NBA team Miami Heat. McGinniss reportedly claims that Rice has confirmed the one-night stand.

Apparently, Palin's husband Todd was "very much in the picture at the time" and the couple married nine months later.

The "publishing source" also claims that Palin later had a six-month affair with her husband’s business partner, Brad Hanson, and that as a result, Todd disposed of the snowmobile dealership they ran together.

If revelations of infidelity weren't shocking enough for her right-wing Republican Tea Party fans, maybe the claims about Palin’s drug use will finish off her reputation.

McGinniss is said to claim that before Palin became governor of Alaska, she snorted cocaine off a 55-gallon oil drum during a snowmobile trip. And in a scene reminiscent of the National Lampoon film Animal House, he also claims that while Palin was at Mat-Su College in Alaska, she smoked marijuana with a professor.

The Enquirer has not been the only source of preview material from The Rogue. In a somewhat unconventional marketing gambit, McGinniss has been releasing extracts through the popular comic strip, Doonesbury, which is written by Garry Trudeau and carried by newspapers nationwide in the US.

In it, a character called Roland Hendley – a fictional Fox News reporter – reads snippets from the book.

However, according to the Christian Science Monitor, some newspapers have refused to run the strip, including the Chicago Tribune, which primly notes that "the subject matter does not meet our standards of fairness [because] the strips include excerpts from a book that is not yet on the market and therefore unavailable for review or verification by the Tribune".

According to the Guardian, other newspapers have been more selective, running some strips, but not one which carries the line: "Palin isn't comfortable in the presence of dark skinned people". ·