////Trick? But, as I stated above, she could sue his ass off.////

Not if all this was agreed on beforehand.

////Now, my comment on him being paid to do it... how would he get around the IRS? Swiss bank account or elsewhere?////

He could have accepted gifts. He could have accepted a pat on the ass.

////And, why would he need more money?////

He doesn't necessarily need anything. He's a shill in a dirty tricks campaign for the same reason other people become shills--he believes in what he's doing.

////He's got money to burn from previous work. So, what's the motive?///

The last time a "liberal journalilst" fell for a dirty trick was Dan Rather when he bought those phony miltary documents about Bush. Everything in them was true but the documents themselves were bogus and easy to debunk as forgeries. Rather believed them because he knew the info in them was true. He was tricked. It ruined his career and killed any interest in the highly questionable version Bush handed the world wabout his military service--it got him sympathy and therefore votes. Sarah Palin no doubt has many dark secrets and all are in that book along with complete rubbish. But into the book and the rubbish will be exposed as false and will completely kill any interest in ANY of the info in the book. It worked once, no reason it wouldn't work again if fools buy into it. Sound like motive enough?