Wow! Did my friend Shannyn Moore get famous or what?

Sarah Palin's attacks against liberal bloggers, and Shannyn Moore in particular, are raising even more questions about why she has suddenly decided to leave office. As usual Palin seems to be trying to put out a campfire with gasoline and cannot understand why the flames keep spreading.

But one person who is NOT getting burned by the heat is my blogger buddy Shannyn Moore, who spent yet another day fielding questions from the media, only this time SHE was the focus of the story.

Here is what Shannyn told the ADN: "I haven't defamed the governor, I reported on speculation and rumor in Alaska. ... It's not my rumor; it's been out there for 10 months and the First Amendment protects me," Moore said. "Even if I didn't say it's 'rumors and speculation,' I'm still protected -- I would just lose credibility, which I'm not willing to do."

Here is what she told KTUU: "She has every right to defend herself about anything if she feels that she needs to," said Moore. "I just think it's weird she has to defend herself to me on reporting on what is actually happening on the ground. Maybe she wasn't aware that people have been talking about that for close to two months."

Here is another quote for KTVA: "I don't know if the rumors are true," Moore said. "I'm not saying they are, I'm just saying that there are rumors and that they've been around for a long time."

"There have been other people that have put rumors together and have put my name on it," Moore said. "I'm not responsible for what other people write."

Van Flein said he would need to meet with the Palins before pursuing an actual lawsuit, but Moore says she is ready.

"I hope (a lawsuit) does come, I hope it does," she said. "Because there is a line of attorneys out my email door that are asking to please be the one to depose Sarah Palin."

Shannyn is also dominating the front page of the Huffington Post right now.

Shannyn, who certainly does not pursue the limelight with the same rabid fervor of our recently resigned Governor, is handling all of this attention pretty well. I think she is still a little shocked that SHE was targeted after avoiding the more controversial Plain stories and sticking to the political side of Sarah's difficulties for lo these many months, but by the end of last evening she was smiling and feeling pretty good.

And just to help clarify this story. ALL Shannyn did was say that there was a rumor of a criminal investigation against Sarah Palin. If you have read this blog or Dennis Zaki's blog, or the comments at Mudflats, or any number of other blogs you have probably known about that for about two months. It is not news to those of us who follow the Palin story carefully.

And in ALL of that time Sarah Palin and her cronies never said a thing about the validity of the charges. But now that the media is searching for a reason to explain Sarah's bizarre behavior they suddenly feel all defensive and victimized.

But remember NOBODY said this was an FBI investigation. The rumor I heard was that it was an IRS investigation. Now that MAY turn out to be a false lead as well, but it is definitely a well known rumor. However if you read or listen to ALL of Shannyn's responses you will hear that she carefully avoided labeling who was investigating Palin, or what kind of and investigation it might be. However even if she had stated what I just stated above, she STILL would have been protected by the First Amendment.

Look let's cut to the chase. The only reason that Palin targeted Shannyn is because she received air time on Hardball with David Shuster on Friday and that pissed Palin off. But now her attack ensures that Shannyn will get even more television time (She will be on Countdown on Monday), and that she can tell her side of the story over and over again. Well done Governor!

And by the way can you just imagine the response from the conservative side if Barack Obama took the time to lash out at the dozens of bloggers who claimed he was not born in this country? Or called him a Socialist? Or said that he was purposefully destroying America?

But you know some people are able to handle the challenges of their office, and some people are overwhelmed and just have to quit. And aren't we glad that they finally did?

Update: Wonkette weighs in.

Update2: AKM writes her opinion about this blatant abuse of power over at Huffington Post.