SATURDAY ROUNDUP

A probe finding that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) abused her executive power will be trouble for Palin on the campaign trail, bloggers decide, while conservatives wonder if jailed fundraiser and real estate developer Antoin “Tony” Rezko will deal any dirt on Barack Obama now that he may be talking to federal prosecutors.

It just got harder for Palin and John McCain to bill themselves as reformers, Steve Benen suggests at Political Animal, after a probe by the Alaska state legislature found that Palin abused her power as governor to try to get her ex-brother-in-law fired from the state trooper force. The so-called “troopergate” investigation also confirmed reports of the trooper’s violent behavior, but it could still pose a problem for Palin on the campaign trail as the phrase “abuse of power” tends to stick in people’s minds, Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey contends.

Rezko likely won’t implicate Obama in any sort of scandal, RedState’s Moe Lane supposes after news that Rezko recently met with U.S. attorneys, but the blogger claims that some of Obama’s Illinois-based staffers may have shady ties Rezko could reveal. A rumor that Rezko will talk about a Chicago bank, meanwhile, has The Corner’s Mark Hemingway hoping Rezko will implicate a former Illinois state treasurer Obama once endorsed.

And Democrat Jim Martin’s strong performance against incumbent Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) has Swing State Project’s DavidNYC calling on liberals to support Martin and avenge Chambliss’s 2002 victory over Democratic Sen. Max Cleland (Ga.). The blogger hopes Chambliss will get some payback for running ads that morphed Cleland’s face into that of Osama bin Laden, while Daily Kos’s kos says a new Insider Advantage poll, which shows the two tied at 45 percent, is cause for Georgia Republicans to panic.

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:
Ga.-Sen.: ‘Bomb Obama’ – kos, Daily Kos
Just (Another) Misjudgment – C. Liebau, Townhall.com
ACORN Watch – Moe Lane, RedState
McClintock’s KKK Problem – Todd Beeton, MyDD
ACORN on Suppression – P. Rosenberg, Open Left
Troopergate Trouble – Ed Morrissey, Hot Air
Confused – Kathryn Jean Lopez, The Corner
The Polls – Big Tent Democrat, TalkLeft
Obama Up Eight – tremayne, Open Left
Biden Smears Obama – J. McCormack, The Weekly Standard

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:
Probe Finds Palin Abused Power – Washington Post
Bush: World Coming Together – The Hill
White House Overhauling Rescue Plan – NY Times
N. Korea Off Terror List – USA Today