The report in TrooperGate will be out Oct. 10 as scheduled.

The Alaska lawmaker directing an abuse-of-power investigation of Gov. Sarah Palin promised Friday the probe will be finished before the election, despite refusals by key witnesses to testify, including the governor's husband.

After waiting 35 minutes for Todd Palin and two state administrative employees to appear under subpoena before the state Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Hollis French condemned their refusal to testify and the attorney general's broken promise that seven other witnesses would testify who were not subpoenaed.

Prediction: It will be critical of Palin, and Palin will complain it's one-sided, making no reference to her and her husband and staff's refusal to cooperate.

Palinspeak: The only probe I'll cooperate with is one in which those making the decisions are under my direction and control (like the state personnel board.)

Palin's already peaked. It's almost crash and burn time. [More...]

I was one of a few bloggers and reporters on a Hillary Clinton conference call this afternoon. Also on the call were Ann Lewis and NH Senate candidate Jeanne Shaheen. Listeners included Hillary delegates, supporters and state volunteers, among others.

The purpose of the call: to announce the formation of Hillary's new grass roots action program, Hillary Sent Me. Starting tomorrow, you can read all about it at Hillary's HillPac website.

Hillary was totally excited about this, you could hear it in her voice. It's a program to get out the vote both for Barack Obama and congressional candidates (particularly in the Senate) in the battleground states.

The program kicks off in New Hampshire Sept. 27/28, and Hillary is asking people to travel there to campaign for Obama and Senate candidate Jeanne Shaheen.[More...]

The AP reports:

Alabama Prisons Commissioner Richard Allen stopped a voter registration drive for inmates Thursday under pressure from the Alabama Republican Party.

In a letter to state Republican Party Chairman Mike Hubbard, Allen said individuals conducting the program "were not doing anything for the inmates that they could not do themselves by simply contacting the Secretary of State's Office for the voter registration postcard."

Allen's absurd rationale: [More...]

In his statement today on the financial crisis, Senator Barack Obama said, in part:

[W]e cannot only have a plan for Wall Street. We must also help Main Street as well. I’m glad that our government is moving so quickly in addressing the crisis that threatens some of our biggest banks and corporations. But a similar crisis has threatened families, workers and homeowners for months and months and Washington has done far too little to help.

[MORE]

If you compare the records of Barack Obama and John McCain, it’s clear that Barack Obama stands with women on the issues that are important to them: equal pay for equal work, the right to choose, comprehensive health care reform. Examples, as received from the Obama campaign, below:

I have been pitching the notion that John McCain's statement on Monday that "the fundamental of our economy are strong" could well become the defining moment of this election - akin to John Kerry's "I was for it before I was against it" moment in 2004. This USA Today editorial buttresses my view:

As Wall Street's roller-coaster week unfolded, John McCain's views on the economy went through about as many gyrations as the Dow Jones industrial average. Brace your neck for a quick recap.

[More . . .

We now have 5 organizations I know of doing daily tracking polls of the Presidential race - Gallup, Rasmussen, DKos/R2000, Hotline/Diageo and the Battleground poll. The trend this week in all 5 has been clearly and decisively in Obama's favor.

Gallup has gone from a 2 point McCain lead in polling in the 9/12-14 period to a 4 point Obama lead in the 9/15-17 period - and Obama now leads in the tracker, 48-44. More . . .

The LA Times on Gov. Sarah Palin and the Road to Nowhere:

While seeking votes, she told Ketchikan residents she backed the 'bridge to nowhere.' As governor, she spent the money elsewhere and moved ahead with a $26-million road to the nonexistent bridge.

You can't make this stuff up.

This is an open thread. See you all tomorrow.

The only way for Bob Barr to win a state is to remove John McCain and Barack Obama from the ballot. Barr is giving that strategy a try in Texas.

Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party's nominee for president, has filed a lawsuit in Texas demanding Senators John McCain and Barack Obama be removed from the ballot after they missed the official filing deadline. "The seriousness of this issue is self-evident," the lawsuit states. "The hubris of the major parties has risen to such a level that they do not believe that the election laws of the State of Texas apply to them."

Barr thinks the two major party candidates missed state-imposed deadlines to be certified as their party's candidate and should therefore be removed from the Texas ballot. Neither candidate was nominated in time to be certified as the party's nominee. The likelihood that a court will allow Barr to tamper with a federal election because candidates failed to satisfy an impossible requirement of state law is not high.

It's official. Alaska "First Dude" Todd Palin, husband of Gov. Sarah Palin, will refuse to comply with the subpoena issued last week to testify before the Alaska Senate Judiciary Committee on TrooperGate.

Instead of taking the 5th, something we could respect as his constitutional right, he's claiming he can't get a fair hearing. Republican politics as usual.

A state Senate committee is scheduled to meet Friday to take statements from the 12 people they subpoenaed last week, including Todd Palin. But McCain-Palin spokeswoman Maria Comella said Todd Palin would not face a "fair hearing" before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

More...

The CNN poll of polls is out, showing that leading national polls show Barack Obama with a 3 point lead over John McCain.

The latest poll of polls consists of four surveys: CBS/The New York Times (September 12-16), Gallup (September 15-17), Diageo/Hotline (September 14-16) and American Research Group (September 13-15). It does not have a sampling error.

The economic crisis has given Obama and his running mate, Sen. Joe Biden, the opportunity to go on the offensive. Most Americans see Obama as more capable than McCain when it comes to the economy, polls indicate.

CNN reports Gov. Sarah Palin may have peaked. Not a moment too soon, in my view. And it's not just me. [More...]

Leaving the snark aside on the Zapatero Affair, it seems clear to me that John McCain either did not recognize the name Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the leader of the government of Spain, or did not understand the question presented to him (somewhat understandable given the accent of the questioner) about Zapatero. My first inclination was to give McCain the benefit of the doubt - I know he knows who Zapatero is, and I know he knows Spain is a NATO ally. To me it seems clear he was thinking of the Zapatista rebels in Chiapas (he tangents into discussing the Mexican President Calderon in response to the question.) [More . . .]