NEW YORK – If her bid for vice president fails, Gov. Sarah Palin could almost surely use her sudden fame to obtain a lucrative book deal or high fees on the lecture circuit, or even get her own TV talk show. But Alaska law might not allow it.

A provision of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act restricts outside employment. It says: “The head of a principal executive department of the state may not accept employment for compensation outside the agency that the executive head serves.”

Senior Assistant Attorney General David Jones said the section likely applies to the governor but it’s not clear what constitutes “employment.”

“Clearly, the intent of the statute is to make it clear these are full-time jobs. If you are a commissioner, for example, you can’t be working in the private sector. But does that mean you can’t go out and give a speech now and then for an honorarium? I don’t know. I don’t know that we have interpreted it for that purpose in the past,” Jones said.

Palin, 44, was little known beyond Alaska before John McCain chose her in August to be his running mate on the Republican ticket. Although she has been widely criticized as too inexperienced to handle the presidency, Palin consistently draws large crowds and is considered an attractive and dynamic presence, receiving high praise for her appearance Oct. 19 on “Saturday Night Live.”

“It’s not unimaginable that Ms. Palin, who once worked as a television sports reporter, could someday follow (Ronald) Reagan’s path in reverse and cash in her political renown to become a show-business celebrity,” New York Times critic Alessandra Stanley wrote.

“One thing everybody can agree on is that Gov. Sarah Palin is qualified – to someday host her own television show.”

Palin was elected governor in 2006. Her term is scheduled to run through 2010.

Unlike McCain, or the Democratic candidates – Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Joseph Biden – Palin has never written a book. But interest in her has been so high that her nomination made an instant best seller out of an obscure biography, Kaylene Johnson’s “Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned Alaska’s Political Establishment Upside Down,” published last spring by Epicenter Press, Inc., based in Kenmore, Wash.

Publishers agree that a Palin memoir would bring her a seven-figure advance, should she be permitted to accept it.

“If she is allowed to do whatever she wants, all kinds of things are possible,” says Peter Osnos, founder of PublicAffairs, which released the best seller “What Happened,” by former White House press secretary Scott McClellan.

“What you have with her is a situation in which she’s a real celebrity, and she’s new enough for people to want to read about her.”

Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens vowed to fight his Monday conviction on federal corruption charges, a verdict he attributed to “repeated instances of prosecutorial misconduct.”

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Contrary to Gov. Sarah Palin’s campaign promises to “build a pipeline quickly,” the massive project to send natural gas south is still no sure thing.

TransCanada Corp. has been awarded a state license, but still needs approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which is years away. Canadian regulators must sign off on their portion.

First Nation tribes in Canada are objecting to the proposed route. And even if it sails through financial and regulatory hurdles, TransCanada still has no obligation to build the pipeline.

If the company doesn’t complete the project, it could still receive up to $500 million in state subsidies, with startup costs split evenly until the company tries to secure contracts to ship gas through the supply channel. Between the time TransCanada locks in shipping commitments and files for a federal permit, the state will pick up 90 percent of the tab even before ground is broken.

If TransCanada can’t woo the energy companies to use its pipeline, banks won’t finance the project. And unless the state or TransCanada decide to break the contract, the company must move forward with the federal permitting process for a project that would be all but doomed. The state treasury would cover most of those costs.

According to a new report by the Congressional Research Service, TransCanada and state officials may be underestimating how long the project will take; the target finish date is 2018.

Should TransCanada win federal permission to start digging, U.S. taxpayers could be on the hook, big time. Included in the company’s bid is a proposal for the federal government to absorb up to $75 billion in liability over a 25-year period if the major natural gas suppliers refuse to ship their gas through the line, the CRS report said. Such a measure would require congressional approval.

Meanwhile, ConocoPhillips and BP have launched a competing project completely outside the state’s process – Denali-The Alaska Gas Pipeline – that promises to get the job done more quickly.

Clearly, two pipelines won’t be built, and already state officials acknowledge that the winners in Palin’s process may end up being absorbed into a consortium with the multinational energy giants. After all, with no guaranteed gas supply, there’s little need for a pipeline.

“Frankly, this continues to be one big negotiation,” said Revenue Department Commissioner Pat Galvin.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Gov. Sarah Palin and her husband are scheduled to give dispositions Friday in a second investigation into whether she violated Alaska ethics law by firing the state’s top public safety official.

Attorney Thomas Van Flein, who is representing both Sarah and Todd Palin, said the depositions will take place outside the state but declined to say where.

The governor is on the campaign trail as Republican John McCain’s running mate. Campaign officials have not yet released her Friday schedule.

The three-hour interviews are part of an investigation by the Alaska Personnel Board, which has hired independent counsel Timothy Petumenos. He did not immediately return a call left at his Anchorage office.

WASHINGTON – Former Alaska Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan said Monday he feels “relieved” by a legislative report concluding that Gov. Sarah Palin abused her authority by trying to have her former brother-in-law fired as a state trooper.
 
“I’ve never contested my firing. My firing was completely lawful,” Monegan said in a nationally broadcast interview. “It wasn’t that I was fired that I asked any questions. It was, what were the reasons for the firing.”
 
Monegan declined to say in an interview with NBC’s “Today” show what legal options, if any, he might be exploring in the wake of the findings announced late Friday in Alaska by investigator Stephen Branchflower.

Monegan did say that he and his family were pleased with the report’s conclusions.

“Actually, I feel relieved,” he said. “My wife and I have been through a lot. It’s not a matter of being revenged. It’s just strictly a matter of being relieved.” Monegan was interviewed by telephone from Alaska.      

In his report Friday to a bipartisan panel that looked into the matter, Branchflower found Palin in violation of a state ethics law that prohibits public officials from using their office for personal gain. Palin has said that Monegan’s tenure as the state’s lead law enforcement officer ended because of policy differences.
 
The inquiry looked into the dismissal of Monegan, who said he lost his job because he resisted pressure to fire a state trooper involved in a bitter divorce and custody battle with the governor’s sister.

“I feel vindicated,” Monegan had said late Friday. “It sounds like they’ve validated my belief and opinions. And that tells me I’m not totally out in left field.”

On Monday, Monegan said the controversy “really isn’t about me.”

“I think that we’re more concerned about our governor,” he added, “and I think she took a big blow to her credibility and more significantly to her promises of being open and transparent.”

Asked how he planned to vote in the November elections, Monegan said he didn’t want to say, telling his interviewer that’s why they “put those little curtains around” the polling booth.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Alaska’s top finance officer will review payments made to Gov. Sarah Palin for nights she charged the state for staying in her own home.

Finance Director Kim Garnero said she must determine whether the payments made to Palin in the future should be considered income. Garnero said, “That’s something we need to confer with the governor’s office on.”

Palin has received more than $17,000 in per diem payments since taking office in December 2006 for 312 nights she stayed in her Wasilla home about an hour’s drive from Anchorage. The state provides a home for the governor in Juneau.

Garnero said her review would look at future payments, not those already made.

Palin is the Republican vice presidential nominee.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – The Alaska state trooper at the heart of a legislative investigation into whether Gov. Sarah Palin abused her power said Tuesday he has not been contacted by the man overseeing the inquiry.
 
The Legislature is investigating whether Palin, the Republican candidate for vice president, fired former Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan because he would not dismiss trooper Mike Wooten. Wooten went through a messy divorce from Palin’s sister.

But nearly six weeks into the investigation, Wooten told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he has not been contacted by the Legislature’s investigator, former Anchorage prosecutor Stephen Branchflower.
 
“I have not been contacted by him, nor will I contact him,” Wooten said. “If he wants to talk to me, I will cooperate 100 percent with him, but he has not contacted me.”

Wooten admits using a Taser on his stepson, but said he poses no threat to the Palin family and didn’t drink in his patrol car as they alleged in a 2005 complaint before Palin was elected governor.

Now Wooten has become a national figure in the Troopergate investigation, caught in a political he-said, she said that has evolved into a jurisdictional battle between Palin’s attorney and the Legislature.

State Sen. Hollis French, an Anchorage Democrat who is overseeing the investigation, did not immediately return calls for comment.

Wooten said he had heard rumblings at work that the Palin administration was trying to get him off the force these last few years.

“I heard rumor mill and hearsay that there was, I guess, pressure being applied to come after my position as a trooper,” Wooten said. “But I didn’t know to the extent to what’s being sent out to the media now.”

Palin has said she did not fire Monegan because of Wooten. However, last month she disclosed contact between members of her administration and the State Troopers, questioning Wooten’s employment.

One of the employees is Frank Bailey, the governor’s director of boards and commissions. He was recorded on tape questioning another trooper, Lt. Rodney Dial, about why Wooten was still employed.

In the recorded conversation, Bailey is heard telling a lieutenant with the state trooper’s office: “Todd and Sarah are scratching their heads, why on earth hasn’t, why is this guy still representing the department? He’s a horrible recruiting tool. … You know, I mean from their perspective, everyone’s protecting him.”

Wooten said he’s never met Frank Bailey and doubts he would recognize Bailey if he ran into him.
 
“I was pretty shocked,” Wooten said. “It wasn’t a why me? It was more of a there’s no reason for this. Just move on.”

WASHINGTON – Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has charged her state a daily allowance, normally used for official travel, for more than 300 nights spent at her home, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.

An analysis of travel statements filed by the governor, now John McCain’s Republican running mate, shows she claimed the per diem allowance on 312 occasions when she was home in Wasilla and that she billed taxpayers $43,490 for travel by her husband and children.

Per diem payments are meant for meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business. State officials told The Post her claims – nearly $17,000 over 19 months – were permitted because her “duty station” is Juneau, the capital, and she was in Wasilla 600 miles away. The governor moved to Juneau last year but often stays in Wasilla and works 45 miles away, in a state office in Anchorage.

Palin’s spending and record in office are coming under intense scrutiny as she is presented to the nation as a champion of ethics reform and frugal use of tax dollars.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – A Republican effort has failed to unseat the Alaska state senator overseeing the ethics investigation into whether Gov. Sarah Palin abused her power when she dismissed the state’s public safety commissioner.

Democratic Sen. Hollis French was accused of manipulating the probe for political effect on the national and state elections. Republican Rep. John Coghill last week asked the Alaska Legislative Council to discuss replacing French as the probe’s project director.

On Monday, the head of the Legislative Council turned down his request. Democratic Sen. Kim Elton responded that he is sure that partisan politics can be kept out of the probe.