Sarah Surfing

Footnote: MSNBC anchor David Shuster thought he had nailed one of the culprits leaking derogatory information about Sarah Palin to Fox News -- including such allegations as the Alaska governor's confusion over African geography.

"Turns out it was Martin Eisenstadt, a McCain policy adviser who has come forward today to identify himself as the source of the leaks," Shuster reported Monday.

Turns out that's wrong.

Shuster proceeded to interview two guests about the revelation on Eisenstadt's blog -- but Eisenstadt is a fictional creation.

So is the Harding Institute for Freedom and Democracy, the think tank with which he was allegedly associated, and so are the YouTube clips of the supposed scholar.

After other bloggers challenged his existence -- and other media outlets, including the New Republic, were taken in -- the New York Times reported yesterday that two filmmakers created Eisenstadt to help them pitch a TV show based on the character.

"The story was not properly vetted and should not have made air," MSNBC spokesman Jeremy Gaines said. "We issued a correction on air within minutes of making the error."

Meanwhile, Palin continues to rouse strong emotions, if the commentary out there is any indication. Tina Brown circles back to the question that, perhaps unfairly, dogged her opening days as the VP nominee:

"So far the interviews with Sarah Palin in her TV media blitz have failed to answer the only question I'm interested in: Now that it's all over, Sarah, who does look after the kids?

"I could never see a shot of the dynamite-looking Palin sashaying out to greet the crowd in those borrowed gladrags without thinking of what it must be like backstage. If it was anything like the early childrearing scene in my own house, the baby was throwing up, Piper was bleating about her missing coloring book, Bristol was sitting sullenly with her iPod giving every one filthy looks, and Todd Palin didn't notice any of it because he was on the phone.

"Frockgate -- the revelation that the GOP spent $150,000 on the former hockey mom's designer duds -- only heightened the collective female desire to hear Palin tell it like it really was on the campaign trail, standing there in her pantyhose in the hotel suite, stabbing at her BlackBerry while also struggling into a too-small Galliano jacket that looked great on the hanger but has some fantail flourish at the back that makes her butt look big. 'Can someone undo this darn zip! Shoot! Now my hair's messed up!' Come on, Sarah, fess up! We know it happened! . . .

"That's why the missed opportunity in Palin's interviews (interviews that will be rich ridicule fodder for other reasons) was her answer to Van Susteren's most sisterly question about the ordeals of the campaign: 'Was it harder on your family, do you think?' 'My family's pretty tough,' she replied, 'and they -- because I've been in local office and state office since '92. You know, the kids have grown up with this. I think they're kind of used to that, which is sort of unfortunate, if you think about it, that they've -- you know, they've grown up seeing things said and written about their mom that, you know, even they know hasn't always been true. But I think that they know that that's sort of the nature of the beast of politics.'