Sarah Palin is planning to run for office again. But "shhh" don't tell anybody.

"Wait, nobody is supposed to know yet."

Well I just got a call from a very well placed source who tells me that Palin is working overtime to head off a potential scandal that she is terrified will leak to the press.

Apparently that scandalous bit of information is that Todd's brother JD did not pass a recent urine test and is about to lose his job. (I have not heard what substances he tested positive for, but my source says alcohol has to be at least one of them.)

So worried is Palin that she has had Todd hire.....you might want to sit down for this....Rex Butler.

I know right?

So gee I guess all of that talk about Rex and Tank being paid off by the Palins in order to destroy Levi's credibility and drain his bank account, does not sound quite so far fetched anymore does it?

According to the source this company wants JD gone but Sarah and Todd are desperate for this not to explode onto the headlines.

Why are they so concerned you might be wondering?

Because the big surprise that Chuck Jr. has been hinting at is that Sarah is about to announce her candidacy for some political office.

Which one is still unclear, but she is DEFINITELY getting ready to make an announcement.

And my response to that is, good! If she does that I am certain to attract national attention for my source and to possibly even get her a book deal.

Speaking of my source I am pushing back my post until January 5th.

The reason is because that is a Monday which is always a better day for big news, and also because now I have quite a lot more information to work with than I did before.

Rex Butler, can you believe that shit?

Radar Online gets access to court documents showing that Levi Johnston did not give Bristol permission to take Tripp out of state.

Courtesy of Radar Online:  

RadarOnline.com has exclusively learned that Johnston has dragged Palin back into court in Alaska in a bid to get more time with their five-year-old son, Tripp, and to curb Palin’s repeated trips out of state with the boy. 

“I was never EVER ok with u taking my son anywhere or put[ting him] on your tv show,” Johnston snaps in bitter text messages submitted as evidence in the case, and only Radar has all the details.

Radar also finally learned that there has never been a legal custody agreement between Levi and Bristol, and that all of this time he has been at her mercy as to when, and for how long he could see Tripp. (Just another way that he was screwed over by Rex and Tank.)

Instead of having a solid visitation agreement, Bristol just up and took Tripp whenever she wanted to, and often this came as a surprise to Levi: 

“Hey I thought our flight left tomorrow, but it leaves midnight tonight,” a supposed text from Palin sent January 6, 2014, reads. 

“When does my son get back?” Johnston’s response reads. “I told u … There is not chance you are taking him there for another 3 months. TRIPP wants and needs his father, Bristol. U need to let him stay with me or fly him back up to me when I’m back from work. That’s completely reasonable.”

“Look Levi, bfeore sunny got involved in this, you were fine with me being in school,” Palin snapped back in the alleged text. “Tripp is enrolled in school in AZ and will be back when I’m done with training.” 

Johnston insisted, “Tripp needs to be in Alaska. We’re [sic] the rest of his family is. How can u be so selfish and no I was never EVER ok with u taking my son anywhere or put on your TV show. It’s all crap. He deserves more then [sic] that. He needs his dad and my family just as much as yours. And more importantly. Tripp needs stability and a routine and sports. And all that. I really hope and pray u put 2 and 2 together one day. It’s not right. Or fair to our son.” 

“Go ahead and ask him if he want to stay with dad or go with u,” he taunted. “Bet he says dad. Just saying Bristol. Tripps old enough to tell u what he wants now.”

I have been told that Levi often did not even realize that Tripp was out of town until days after he left.

I remember that Sadie would complain bitterly that there would be agreed upon visitations, often around holidays and birthdays, and then at the last minute Bristol would simply cancel, without bothering to give a reason.

Hopefully this time there will be an actual agreement that will protect Levi and his parental rights, and introduce some stability into the child's life.

Which by the way is more than Bristol apparently ever had.

Levi fights back. Update!

Recently Bristol filed a Child Custody Jurisdiction Affidavit which some of us worried was an attempt to change jurisdiction so that she could take Tripp to Arizona and force Levi to fight for his visitation rights long distance.

However yesterday, according to Court View, Levi filed an Order Granting Motion for Expedited Consideration which, and I am really only guessing because though I have slept with a law student I have not attended law school, seems to be an attempt by his new attorney to stop Bristol in her tracks and keep the case here in the state.

What's new about this custody case this time I believe is that Levi has an attorney who is NOT associated with Rex Butler in any way, and according to my usual contacts within the Johnston family it looks like things may not be nearly as settled when it comes to the custody arrangement as the Palins would like us to think.

I am confident that at the very least Levi will get his child support payments reduced to a reasonable rate, and that he will be able to ensure that his son is not removed from the state without his knowledge any time his mother gets a wild hair up her ass.

Personally, considering how poorly represented Levi was in the past, I think it would be appropriate for the judge to start from scratch, and work out a custody agreement and child support payments based on the facts rather than simply giving the Palins every damn thing they ask for.

I am beyond certain that at some point Rex Butler was no longer working in Levi's best interests, and I think the handling of the previous custody arrangement is all the proof you need to know that's a fact.

After all what kind of an attorney tells his client not to show up for a custody hearing?

However I am concerned that Levi will not get a fair shot yet again as the judge assigned to this case, Gregory L. Heath (I know right?), is a Palin appointee, and may have ties to her crazy ass church.

I know if I were Levi's attorney that would raise serious red flags for me.

Update: Okay I am not going to respond to the  crazy Bristol Palin fan girl who haunts these pages in between electric shock treatments, but let me clear a few things up.

Levi was NEVER adequately represented in his first custody hearings.

In fact he did not even go  through CSSD to start his child support payments, which is what ALL divorced parents are encouraged to utilize to keep things fair and to ensure accountability. And because of that it allowed the Palins to call him a deadbeat dad even though he had been paying regularly on his monthly payments and the portion in arrears.

And yes Bristol has taken Tripp out of state numerous times without notifying Levi or the Johnston family. Not only that, but when he is left in the state. after Bristol flies off for some reason or another, Levi is never allowed to care for him, even though in Alaska it is always considered preferable that a child be cared for by the non-custodial parent when the custodial parent is unavailable. 

My guess would be that Bristol did not allow that so Levi could not tell the court that he spent any significant time with his son. (You know, defeats that whole "deadbeat dad" meme.)

There have been numerous games played, and I have been watching this whole thing since the beginning, and no,  the games and accusations did NOT start with the Johnston family.

But nice try dipshit.

Tripp Johnston custody case closed due to "inaction."

Courtesy of the AP:  

A custody case between Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston has been closed, and an attorney says the two likely will work out any future differences regarding their 3-year-old son on their own. 

Alaska court records show the case involving Sarah Palin's grandson Tripp was closed this month after a lack of activity. 

Johnston attorney Rex Butler said Monday the best way to interpret the development is that the parties likely will resolve any problems themselves. An attorney for Bristol Palin didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Just to be clear, Rex Butler has NOTHING to do with Levi anymore. And he certainly should not be acting as his spokesman!

This information came as an absolute surprise to, not only me, but some family members as well. To be honest I am not even positive that Levi knew it was about to happen. My last communication with any of them stated that they were still itching to take this to court.

As I reported before Bristol had reached out to Levi and told him that she did not want to get lawyers involved in a custody battle and then suggested that they could work things out themselves.

With the arrival of a new baby, it looks like Levi may have become distracted and held off pursuing this thinking that he still had time. However it looks like the courts may have made the decision for him.

The problem is that the Palins NEVER do anything unselfishly, which means that Levi will surely live to regret trusting Bristol and not insisting that they work this out legally.

I don't care how many bouquets of flowers Bristol sends (On Tripp's behalf of course) she is NEVER going to allow Levi to have any control over how often, or when he gets to see his son. Right now Tripp is the ONLY weapon she has to hurt Levi (Who she is clearly still pining over) and she will use him to bludgeon Levi into submission until either he has had enough and walks out of Tripp's life forever, or he mans up and takes her to court to make damn sure that he remains an important part of his boy's life.

Believe me when I say I have been down this road and I know exactly where it leads. And my ex had NOTHING on this hateful tribe of backstabbers!

P.S. Of course as far as I know they STILL have a custody agreement that Bristol has constantly failed to honor, so Levi COULD simply stand before a judge and have Bristol held in contempt. It should be a no-brainer since there are reams of video evidence documenting all of the times when Tripp was taken out of state and unavailable for his visits with his father. Personally I don't know why he did not do this a long time ago?

The unnecessarily sad tale of Levi Johnston.

As many of you already saw the other day, Levi is back in the news.

Well back in the same tabloid news as always that is.

Bristol Palin's baby-daddy, Levi Johnston, is now penniless and living in his mother's Alaska home, a source tells Us Weekly. 

"Levi made more than $1 million and squandered it on guns, boats and four-wheelers," the source says of Playgirl's winter 2010 cover model, 22.  

The cash certainly didn't go to Palin, 21, for their 3-year-old, Tripp. "Levi hasn't paid child support in nearly two years," says another insider. "And he has little contact with Tripp." 

Meanwhile, the onetime mayoral hopeful is expecting a daughter with girlfriend Sunny Oglesby. (They told Inside Edition they plan to name her Breeze Beretta, after the gun.) Says the first source, "Levi is confused about his life." 

I don't have any tangible proof but this leak has the Grizzled Mama, and her nasty little grizzled cub, written all over it. Their anger at Levi is something that is always just boiling under the surface, and they will rarely miss an opportunity to twist the knife, or use Tripp to punish him further.

Sadly this time the information is all too accurate.

Levi actually IS virtually broke and, last I heard, living at home with Sherry.

He has few options and, according to sources, was ripped off by his management team.

Now as many of you remember I became VERY excited early last month when I heard through some contacts that Levi had cut Tank and Rex loose and was ready to spill some potentially damaging beans.

At the time we were ALL very excited since not only did Levi finally walk away from Rex and Tank, but he had ALSO come to believe that they might have been working for Palin all along. (I had suspected this for years by the way.)

As you can imagine THIS was big news, and I was assured it would be revealed during his interview with the Insider.  And lo and behold, it was!

Only for some reason the Insider chose not to air that part of the interview. Why I have no idea.

However I was led to believe that Levi STILL wanted to get that story out, and that his girlfriend Sunny was even MORE determined. So I started to beat the bushes trying to find a legitimate news agency to interview him.

As you can imagine not too many reporters wanted to take another chance on Levi since he had severely damaged his credibility by allowing the Palins to craft that apology in his name, saying that he made up all of the stuff that he told Vanity Fair.

But I did manage to find somebody, and I sent that information to his family in the hopes that he would tell his story to the legitimate press and salvage what was left of his reputation.

I just heard back the other day that Levi is uninterested in talking to the press unless they are willing to pay him. Which of course NO legitimate hard news outlet is willing to do.

Clearly this is the left over residual effect of learning public relations from Tank Jones.

Who, by the way, had this to say about their recent parting of the ways: "I wanted to work on other projects. This was a mutual decision," Jones tells Us of his decision to cease working with the Alaska native. "I would think he would want to do some different things too. I would never leave him at a low point."

Yeah that's bullshit by the way.  The facts are that after Tank and Rex realized their golden goose was no longer producing any easy to market golden eggs, it became virtually impossible for Levi to get them on the phone.

And later after Bristol accused Levi of not paying child support, he found out that even though he had been assured that the payments were being made from his account, that they weren't. And in fact the account was now empty.

Apparently THAT is what happened.

If Levi can prove, through documentation, or even anecdotal evidence (I certainly have some of THAT to provide), that his management team was indeed working for Sarah Palin and that they stole from him, he can have Rex disbarred, and then sue both of them for everything they have. Not to mention that he could attribute virtually every stupid decision that was made on his behalf to their purposefully destructive advice.

Which means that essentially he could repair his damaged reputation, find good legal representation, get at least some of his money and visitation with his son back, and actually have a story to tell that people will WANT to hear.

However as of right now, he is not working toward doing any of that. And he is so poisoned against me, that he flat refuses to even speak to me on the phone, so there is nothing I can do to convince him. Currently he has no access to his son, no money in the bank, and no real prospects for the future.

You know the thing that drives me crazy is that Levi could have actually come out of this thing smelling like a rose, and with his bank account stuffed full of cash, if ONLY he had not signed up with THESE two clowns.

You know life is about learning lessons, it is well past time that Levi learned just WHO he can, and cannot, trust.

Levi Johnston ready to speak out.

Time to get serious.

I just received a tip that Levi is getting ready to tell his side of the story about this child support situation to the national media.

I don't want to give the Palins too many details but it is happening soon, and apparently it is NOT being set up by Rex Butler and Tank Jones.  I think Levi might have finally seen the light and cut those two losers off of his coattails.

I will let you know when I have more, and of course I will post the video when it becomes available.

P.S. This information did NOT come from Sherry and Sadie!

The war of words between Levi Johnston and the Palin clan heats up. Update!

A brief oasis of happiness in a desert of animosity.

Courtesy of (Who else?) TMZ:

 Levi Johnston owes more than $38,000 in unpaid child support to Bristol Palin -- according to team Bristol. 

Bristol's lawyer tells TMZ, Levi hasn't made a child support payment for the ex-couple's son Tripp since June 2010 ... 22 months ago. 

According to court records, Levi is required to pay $1,750 a month -- which means his outstanding balance is $38,500. 

As for why Bristol hasn't attempted to enforce the order -- via wage garnishment or otherwise -- Bristol's attorney tells us, "We forbore pursuing child support collection in the (perhaps naive) hope that Mr. Johnston would do what men are supposed to do and pay his support obligation voluntarily." 

The lawyer adds, "We were also concerned that garnishment or other aggressive collection efforts could exacerbate an already strained relationship" ... no kidding. 

We're told Bristol is still holding out hope that Levi will pay. So far, no word back from Levi's camp.

I would love nothing more than to say this is bullshit.  But I can't.

There are extenuating circumstances, that I hope to share soon, but for right now I promised to stay silent. (Here is a hint: All of you are not the only ones surprised by this news.)

I will however say that there was an easy way to avoid this WHOLE thing, and it was a way that I suggested to "Team Levi" way back when the issue of child support was first brought up.

In Alaska we have an agency called CSED (Child Support Services Division), whose job it is to make SURE that the payor goddamn well pays the payee on time and in the correct amount.

This removes ANY opportunity for one parent, or the other, to make false claims out of spite, and it makes damn sure that the parent who is in arrears pays up, one way or the other. This is especially important when you have the kind of messy breakup that Levi and Bristol had.

I remember insisting to Tank Jones at one point, that they waste NO time in filing paperwork with CSED to protect Levi, and of course Tripp, from this very thing.  Tank, of course, assured me that everything was handled.

As you can see that was just more bullshit.

Levi has received the worst advice imaginable on how to handle all of this, and now he has been painted as a dead beat dad. As a father I cannot imagine carrying around a more hurtful label.

In my opinion Levi has every right to sue Rex and Tank for every dime they have.  They mishandled his career, mishandled his child support situation, and essentially destroyed his reputation.

Now let me ask you this, does anybody else wonder if they did this out of sheer incompetence, or whether or not there is something even uglier working behind the scenes?

Stay tuned.

P.S. One more thing, in Alaska child support payments and visitation, are two SEPARATE issues.  We do not pay for the right to see our children.

If Levi had an honest, capable attorney he would NEVER have had to miss time with his son. And neither would Sherry and Sadie.

Update: Here is the original custody agreement, courtesy of Radar Online.

According to these Levi is supposed to have Trip every Wednesday and Saturday.

Kind of hard to do when the mother moves the child to Arizona for extended periods of time, or takes him along to California to participate in a reality show, now isn't it?

By the way, neither of those choices were discussed with, nor approved by, Levi. In fact he did not even know they were in Arizona until I contacted Sadie and gave her the heads up.

Update: For the slow people in the room let me clarify.

Yes, my understanding is that Levi DOES owe this amount, or a similar amount in back child support.

What I said is that there are extenuating circumstances as to the reasons, but taht I cannot expand on them right now.

If it had simply been bullshit, I would have said "This is bullshit, but I am unable to give details at this moment." I tried to, at the very least, let all of you know that the Palins had orchestrated this to hurt Levi and that they had also made it impossible for him to meet his obligations.

Let me ask, would you all have rather I simply let this story sit out there without comment? Or was I right to tell you what I could now, with the hopes of following up with more later?

Will the real Tripp Johnston please come down?

Trig and Tripp

I first met up with Mr. Sherman "Tank" Jones late in April right after Levi, Mercede, and Sherry returned from doing the Larry King show. We had a very animated conversation in his office, where I offered to help the Johnston family in any way that I could, and things progressed from there. 

The relationship with Jones, which occasionally included Rex Butler as well, lasted until December of last year. (That would be December 2009.)

I wrote this passage back in July 2010. I go on to say that after awhile I became convinced that Tank was not being honest with me about what he was doing for Levi, and that I began to believe that he and Rex were purposefully mismanaging his "career."

All of that is absolutely true. However early on it seemed that Tank was not focused on making money off of Levi, in fact he really seemed to want to help him, and was providing me with very interesting and completely unknown information. Much of this information I was able to verify independently, though in some cases it took years, but there was one very explosive piece that I have never been able to verify.

Back in May of 2009, Tank asked me to meet him at the Glacier Brewhouse near his office, because he had something BIG to tell me.

He was late as usual, but once we sat down, and we had ordered, he shared some information and related to me an incident that he had witnessed when he had driven Levi out to the Palin house sometime in March.

According to Tank, Levi entered the house and later emerged with a young boy that he estimated to be about a year old. As Levi put the boy into his car seat he kept referring to the child as "Tripp."

Now remember this was in March of 2009, when Tripp would have been no more than three months old. According to Tank he then drove them to a house, NOT his mom's house, and dropped them off.

I was of course skeptical and I confronted Tank on his version of events, while telling him that it was impossible for a one year old child to be the same Tripp that had just been born in December, but Tank was adamant that he was telling me just exactly what he saw. I then accused Tank of not knowing enough about babies to be able to judge the age by looking at them. Once again Tank assured me that since he had a son of his own, and had spent a substantial amount of time around babies, that he could certainly tell the difference between an infant and a child that was clearly at least a year old.

I asked if he had confronted Levi about this, but Tank said they had a policy about never discussing the child. (Later in May Levi would pose in GQ magazine with a naked baby. When I confronted Tank with these photos he swore that this baby was NOT the same one that he knew to be Tripp.)

Now at this point I am sure most of you are thinking "Poor Gryphen, got taken in by a liar and STILL doesn't realize it." That is a good point, and there have been times that I have almost agreed with it. Except for a couple of things.

First, that conversation did not take place JUST between myself and Tank Jones.  There was a third person at that table as well.

Shannyn Moore.

I had brought Shannyn along to be a witness to this big story that Tank was going to divulge. And she was sitting right there, mouth hanging wide open, as Tank revealed that the baby that he knew as Tripp was at least a year old, NOT five months old as reported by the Palin family.  What's more he claimed Bristol's pregnancy was "not as it appeared" during the RNC.

Which of course should not shock anybody with two good eyes.

Or even ONE for that matter.

Tank went on to explain that Trig WAS indeed Sarah Palin's child. When I asked him if she had given birth to him, he said "I did not say that. I said that he was her child." He went on to say that we would never be able to prove otherwise, because any paperwork to the contrary would be impossible to access. Essentially he said that she had covered her tracks very well, and it was unlikely that anybody could PROVE she was not his birth mother. (In a separate conversation Rex would describe the hospital scene that Levi witnessed as a "show' which Sarah put on for the benefit of certain people.)

Shannyn and I left the restaurant and went down the street for a beer.  We found ourselves giggling and shaking our heads at this new bombshell, but neither of us knew what to do with it.

As you know Shannyn simply kept it to herself. And until now, so did I.

However it changed my perspective completely on who might be Trig's actual birth mother. Up until then, like most of us, I had assumed it was probably Bristol. But after that conversation I realized that was impossible.

I changed my focus and started looking for more clues to explain this other child. That is when the picture of the "ruffled ear baby" made its appearance.

"There," I thought,  "now things are starting to make sense." So I arranged another conversation with Tank, only this time I invited another knowledgeable person to participate.

I invited my friend Audrey, of Palin's Deceptions.

We arranged a three way call on July 30th. During the call Tank once again told his story about the other, older, Tripp.  However when asked specifically about any ear deformities, Tank claimed that the child he had seen had perfectly normal ears. Dammit! Another dead end.

Here is the e-mail that Audrey sent me right after our conversation:

Jesse, I don't know what to make of Tank's story any more. 

He seems absolutely credible and believable to me that the baby he saw last winter was much larger than newborn AND that Levi introduced him as Tripp. Last winter (March, say) Tripp should have been barely three months old. That's still a tiny baby. The baby he described was a toddler or nearly so. 

But then when we ask him if the "big Tripp" had a messed up ear, he says no. When we asked him point blank if "Tripp is Trig" he was emphatic: no. How many babies are there? And are we to think that they were hiding another Tripp in the house for months and NO ONE noticed? That "old Tripp" was still there when "new Tripp" was brought home? I have wondered for a long time if there are twins somehow but can't put it together. 

He is also emphatic that the pregnancy during the campaign is not as reported, but won't tell us why. 

Very frustrated at this point. 

A

And of course she was not alone.  It would take me another seven months to finally write my Two Babies post, after extensive research and my finally becoming comfortable with the fact that it could withstand the scrutiny that I was sure would be coming after it was posted. (How's THAT for an understatement?)

However up until now I have never known what to do with this information.  I had hoped that Levi would write about it in his book (I even found him an author, who was eventually rejected, back in December of 2009), but of course now we all know that he not only did not mention it, we know that he stayed fairly close to the Palin version of events.

So we are left with the question as to whether to believe Tank Jones concerning this information or not. Would he really lie to two different bloggers with access to large audiences, and a radio host with ties to the national media?

That seems unnecessarily risky. And besides what would be the point of doing so?

Oh wait I left something else out.

Tank Jones was NOT just a guy that I was using as a source for the blog.  He in fact worked for me.

The above is my receipt from the deposit I put down to hire Tank Jones Investigations Group.

In other words when Tank relayed the information about the larger child that Levi referred to as "Tripp," he was doing so as a private investigator relaying information to the client who hired him. Me.

Tank is a licensed PI, to purposefully relay false information would immediately put his license in jeopardy. He also was not relaying information gleaned from an anonymous source, he was reporting his own eyewitness account.

Before Tank and I had our falling out over Levi's first book deal with my author friend, I asked him about this a couple of times. He ALWAYS said "Jesse I did not lie to you."

The last time I saw Tank face to face was a year ago when Rachel Maddow was up here.

Tank wanted to know why we don't talk anymore, and when I brought up that I thought he had been less than truthful with me in the past, he again said "I have never lied to you. Never!"

Now that statement is NOT completely true.  But what IS true is that the information which Tank provided me while working as my PI, and that I was able to verify, always checked out as truthful.

So at this point you might be wondering what all of this has to do with Levi's book, since I sort of promoted this post as part of a review of "Deer in the Headlights." Well I'm glad you asked.

Levi's book actually has some rather startling and potentially damaging (to the Palin brand at least) pieces of information within its pages. Such as:

• Levi again points out that Todd and Sarah are in a loveless marriage, and NEVER sleep together.  
• That Palin quit being governor simply to make money, and that while she WAS still governor came home midday everyday and complained about how much she hated her job.
• That Bristol got pregnant on purpose.
• That Bristol had numerous cosmetic surgery procedures while still in her teens.
• That Bristol admitted that Todd and Sarah were not married when Track was conceived.
• That Sarah "had it set up for Bristol to receive her high school diploma" whether she submitted her school work or not. (I KNEW she did not earn that degree!)

And of course many others that I have already mentioned in my earlier posts about his book.

However we have heard very little from the Palin-bots, or the Palins themselves, attacking his book. Which, to be honest, seems kind of odd.

As a matter of fact compared to how aggressively they went after Joe's book, NONE of the other books, not Bailey's, not Dunn's, nor Levi's, have received quite the same vitriol and aggressive attempts to block efforts to publicize it, that The Rogue has suffered. One cannot help but wonder why that would be?

What the other books seem to have in common is that they either barely mention the questions surrounding Palin's pregnancy, or they go out of their way to refute them.  Which is EXACTLY what is found in Levi's book.

On pg.87, Levi even seems to go that extra mile to dispute the "rumors:"

It was Christmas Day 2008. Bristol was huge; a photo of that belly would have cut off at the knees the Trig truthers who insisted she was his mom.

There are other parts of the book that seem written for the sole purpose of putting the controversy to rest as well.  Which beggars the question, why did Levi put so much emphasis on bolstering the official version of Trig's birth? Especially since, according to Tank, Levi must know full well that the "Trig truthers" are absolutely correct?

And what is it that Levi supposedly knows about Sarah Palin that could be considered "bigger than Watergate," or that would have concerned Palin so much that she had twenty pages removed from her "Going Rogue" manuscript before it went to the publishers? (Before publication the National Enquirer had reported that Palin slammed Levi in the book, but when it came out there was hardly a mention.)

Because whatever that is, it certainly does not show up in Levi's book. Neither does any mention of this mystery baby that Tank has repeatedly claimed exists. (Though as we have already observed, Levi seems to have significant difficulty keeping the dates of Tripp's conception and due date consistent.)

So does this new information clear things up, or only create more confusion? Well dear reader I leave that up to you to decide.

I will say this however. I think that many of us have been right all along in believing that the scandal which Sarah Palin is the most desperate to keep quiet has nothing to do with politics, her marriage, or even her religious beliefs. But it has everything to do with the births of two little boys.

Now we know why Bristol can do whatever she wants with Tripp and Levi can't do anything to stop her.



Levi with Tank Jones.

 From Radar Online:

In an exclusive interview with RadarOnline.com Levi’s manager, Tank Johnson (I have no idea who this "Tank Johnson" guy is.  I used to regularly talk to  Tank Jones" so I assume it is the same guy and that it is THIS kind of great writing and command of the facts that keeps "Team Levi" coming back to Radar Online over and over again as their media outlet of choice.) says that his 20-year-old client is refusing to dignify Bristol’s recent comments about him being an absentee father, and is choosing to take the moral high road.

Bristol recently told a radio station that "since Dancing With the Stars [Levi’s] seen [his son] at most three times.”

Tank denied her allegations and said Levi spends as much time with his two-year-old as he can, and went on to dish out some advice to both Bristol and her family.

("Levi spends as much time with his two year old as he can?" Bullshit!  The custody agreement states that he gets Tripp twice a week, not three times in three months. The only reason that he is NOT seeing his little boy more often is because he is not using the courts to enforce his rights.)

"The Palins need to take the high road. There's a child involved in this and Levi is not going to stoop to this level,” he said. "The Palins like to fight. They can say whatever they want to say.

(Yes they like to fight.  Because they are bullies. The ONLY way that bullies stop beating you up and taking advantage of you is when you FIGHT BACK!)

"But Levi is not going to dignify their comments with a response.”

(Why the hell not?)

And as for Bristol wanting to change Tripp's last name from Johnston to Palin, Tank said that wasn't going to happen.

"Levi has his son and that isn't changing. It is what it is."

(Well as it turns out the only reason that Tripp Johnston may not wake up one day and find that his name is Tripp "Palin" is because it is too much hard work to change it, and the Palins don't like hard work.)

However, a source close to Palin confirms that there won’t be a legal name change: “That will not be happening, legally that would actually take a lot of work and despite all the rumors Bristol and Levi are actually getting along pretty well just now.”

Yeah well how could they not be "getting along pretty well" since Levi is allowing Bristol to treat him like her bitch at every turn?  The Palins LOVE people who bend to their will and let them treat them like dirt. Isn't that right RAM?

Personally I am beyond disgusted with Levi's legal team.  Tank Jones is a six foot, two inch, three hundred pound behemoth, who obviously has balls the size of dried raisins. He talks tough but every time he is supposed to have Levi's back he is nowhere to be seen, or working on getting a little media attention of his own.

And as for Rex Butler, I know at least two female attorneys in Alaska who would have had Thomas Van Flein huddled in a corner sucking his thumb and promising to let Levi have Tripp every day if somebody would just "make the mean lady stop!" Yet Rex has NEVER presented much of a challenge to the Palin legal team even when the deck is stacked in his favor.

Bristol took Levi's son away from him and all he has to do is complain to the court to force her to bring the child back so that he can see him, and work out a better arrangement.  But if his "team" is too cowardly to stand up to the Palins than he is screwed.

Once again Levi, sac up and call me and we will get your little boy back. I promise.

Perhaps the only REAL victim in the Bristol/Levi saga is the little boy trapped in the middle.

Don't you hate it when you are watching a movie and you suddenly realize that you don't really like ANY of the main characters?  The storyline keeps trying to create drama by putting each of the actors in jeopardy, but you simply yawn and think "Hurry up and kill them off, so I can go to bed!"

That is about how I am feeling about this little soap opera.

My first instinct of course was to suspect that Sarah was behind the US Weekly engagement announcement, because it certainly seemed like something she would do.  But I sort of forgot that while Sarah's many advisers have been carefully orchestrating her media events, and putting a spin on the negative stories about her when she screws up, others have been paying close attention.

They have essentially been attending Palin Media Spin class 101.

You see I missed it at first because I had not heard ANYTHING from Tank Jones in a very long time, and I started to wonder if he were even involved with Levi anymore.  Especially since the last several statements from "Team Levi" had been issued by Rex Butler instead of Tank, who was usually the go to guy for those kinds of press releases in the past.

Now I know he is still in the mix, because nobody else could EVER have screwed this publicity stunt up as badly as Sherman "Tank" Jones just did!

Though he would never admit it, Tank has been carefully watching how Palin's team orchestrates her publicity, and trying to copy their methods for use with Levi.  However Palin has several very experienced media people to advise her, and Tank is simply an ex-pimp trying to figure out how to squeeze the last golden egg out of his goose before Levi's contract expires in the next six months or so. (By the way that ex-pimp statement is not an insult, it is a FACT.)

After the big revelation everybody was trying to figure out why Bristol and Levi went with US Weekly instead of People magazine to make their big announcement, especially since they both interviewed Bristol on the very same weekend. (Hell, one of People's reporters even called ME to try and to figure it out.)

Now, thanks to Bristol's tearful confession to People magazine we know that choosing US Weekly was Levi's idea. Of course Levi is only for show, and he does not "have ideas", which means it was Tank Jones who had this brain.....drizzle.

And do you know how I KNOW it was Tank Jones?  Because it completely blew up in their face! 

Now I don't believe that Tank orchestrated the reunion or anything quite that clever, but I am damn sure that the minute he found out about it he immediately smelled the possibility of money.  Tank had to have realized that he had blown it the first time in getting Levi any truly lucrative deals, and that this represented his second chance to get back on that gravy train before it rolled over the horizon and once again left them behind.

So before Levi and Bristol could even take their refurbished relationship out of a test drive, Tank had already made some phone calls and hyped the event enough to get US Weekly to crack open their wallets and hand over 100 grand for the exclusive on this very, very temporary engagement.

But just like the deals that I described in yesterday's post, this one was doomed from the start.  Surprisingly this couple had the opportunity to sign onto a reality show for 1.5  million dollars, but before any money could change hands, or any contracts get signed, Team Levi pulled a Houdini.

Now it MIGHT have been because Bristol is a crazy woman who is constantly consumed with jealousy, or it might have been because she is swelling up like Violet Beauregarde in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory with Ben Barber's baby. (Still waiting for confirmation on that second one.) But whatever the reason it is just the latest in a string of opportunities that Tank Jones failed to make good on

With friends like this WHO needs enemies? The sad tale of the Wasilla boy who almost had it all.

From Hollywood Life:

Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston were on the verge of scoring a huge seven-figure reality TV show deal, but a major reality TV exec tells HollywoodLife.com that they completely walked away from the offer.

Our source, who has created and executive-produced several very highly-rated and well-known reality series in the last decae, reveals that a $1.5 million reality deal was on the table for Bristol and Levi. One stipulation from the producers who made the offer: The couple’s 19-month-old son, Tripp, had to be part of the show.

Once the offer was made we’re told, however, the couple “completely disappeared.”

It turns out the former couple was so close to sealing a deal that the reality TV producer sent an advnce producer to Anchorage, Alaska, in order to meet with Bristol and Levi. But as soon as the producer arrived, Bristol and Levi were nowhere to be found. Our source tells us Bristol and Levi “didn’t answer any calls” and it was “completely shocking” when the couple stopped communicating with him.

When I read that last part it was, in the immortal words of Yogi Berra, "Deja vu all over again."

That EXACT scenario has played out over an over again as people have attempted to make deals with Levi Johnston. Now this time it may have a much to do with the problems between Levi and Bristol, but that certainly was NOT the case during this last year when producers, potential authors, and talent agents found themselves leaving message, after message, with "Team Levi" and rarely, if ever, hearing back from them.

As hard as it may be to believe these days, there was a time when Levi Johnston was the hottest property this side of Sarah Palin.  At one point last fall it seemed that everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY, wanted to take a meeting with Alaska's most famous sperm donor.

I remember sitting at meetings with Tank Jones and having our conversation interrupted repeatedly as reporters, and agents, and producers tried desperately to pitch their ideas for a chance to work with Levi.  It was an amazing thing to behold.

What I did not realize at the time was that many of these people were NEVER going to get a call back.

You see for some reason, Rex and Tank never seem to have seriously considered allowing Levi to sign a book deal, or for that matter any contract for a movie or reality show.  Why?  To be honest, I'm not sure.

Levi Johnston to make appearance in music video.

From the Washington Post:

Levi Johnston will make his music video debut as a lover whose romance is thwarted by his girlfriend's disapproving mother, according to a Universal Music Group record label and Johnston's attorney.

Johnston, 20, who is Bristol Palin's fiance, has agreed to appear in the video with singer-songwriter Brittani Senser next month in Los Angeles. The project is based on the song "After Love" by Senser, 26, a sultry-looking R&B and pop performer from Minneapolis.

"He's looking forward to doing it," Rex Butler, Johnston's attorney in Anchorage, Alaska, said Friday. "It will give him an opportunity to act a little bit in front of a camera. He's done a commercial before, but something like this is a little more involved."

Well I am glad that Levi has found work after such a long dry spell.  It is amazing what can happen when your agent actually does his job isn't it?

Not to pee on this little parade or anything, but the money he will make for this will still be chicken feed compared to the kinds of offers Levi had coming his way last year.

In my upcoming posts I will lay out some of the lucrative offers that were on the table, and how Levi's "team" cock blocked him, time and time again.

A quick post about Team Levi.

I promised to write something today and I hate to break a promise. However I suddenly realized that today is Thursday, late in the day on Thursday even, so since posts written late in the week receive much less attention than those written at the beginning of the week I will wait until early next week to do a more expansive post on the handful of individuals known as "Team Levi," and what I observed going on behind the scenes over the last year. 

Just to give you a little something to digest over the weekend I will tell you that I first met up with Mr. Sherman "Tank" Jones late in April right after Levi, Mercede, and Sherry returned from doing the Larry King show. We had a very animated conversation in his office, where I offered to help the Johnston family in any way that I could,  and things progressed from there.

The relationship with Jones, which occasionally included Rex Butler as well, lasted until December of last year.

There were a lot of telephone conversations and face to face meetings, but after awhile I began to realize that Tank was playing fast and loose with the truth and seemed to be doing everything he could to sabotage Levi's reputation and potential for being taken seriously.  When I would confront him with this he would give me some song and dance and claim that he had everything under control.

However it took me a while to finally learn that Rex and Tank were INTENTIONALLY keeping Levi from meeting with potential authors, movie producers, and television people who were genuinely interested in brokering deals with Levi. Why they did that I can only imagine, and of course conspiracy theories abound.

Some of you have asked why I did not come forward with this news earlier, and the reason for that was because until very recently I truly believed that Levi was simply a naive dupe, and that revealing the fact his management team was far from truthful or trustworthy would have potentially damaged his reputation even further. 

Obviously now that Levi has destroyed that same reputation beyond repair by suggesting that he made things up about the Palins in the past, there is no longer any reason to protect him.  Essentially there is really nothing I can say that will damage his reputation more than he damaged it himself with that unbelievable statement to People magazine.

"Last year, after Bristol and I broke up, I was unhappy and a little angry. Unfortunately, against my better judgment, I publicly said things about the Palins that were not completely true," he tells PEOPLE exclusively. "I have already privately apologized to Todd and Sarah. Since my statements were public, I owe it to the Palins to publicly apologize."

I am absolutely certain that Levi was indeed telling the truth back then, and that if his team had done the job he hired them to do, he would NEVER have had to go crawling back to the Palin family with his tail between his legs.

By my estimation, and this is NOT an exaggeration, Levi had multiple opportunities to make many millions of dollars. He also had offers from family lawyers who would have gladly helped him get joint custody of his son, and the support of millions of people who really wanted to root for him and support his desire to tell the truth about Sarah Palin.

But after he acted like an ass, bared his ass in Playgirl, and did not get his ass to school to work on his GED, that support simply drained away.

Besides his family, I don't think anybody is as disappointed in that outcome as I am.

As I have said I will write much more about this sorry saga early next week, and it will undoubtedly take me a number of installments to tell the entire tale.

And for you Palin-bots who will invariably come to the comment section to pound your chest and dance with glee, don't waste your time.  Because if you think that losing Levi will put an end to our ability to find the truth about Sarah Palin, you could not be more wrong.  In fact in some ways it has only reinvigorated the process, as well as inspiring others to step forward to fill that void.

Mercede Johnston discusses Team Levi.

It looks like Sadie has a new post up this morning that reveals some rather disturbing behind the scenes facts about Rex Butler and Tank Jones.

I am hoping to get my own post up about the things that I witnessed as I interacted with Team Levi as well, but it will not be until the middle of the week at the earliest.

I will say this however, by my estimation Team Levi, through incompetence or possibly other more nefarious reasons, screwed up deals that would have easily brought Levi a minimum of several million dollars over the last year, and quite possibly substantially more than that.

The reason that I have not written about Levi's "mismanagement team" before is because I believed that Levi was an innocent victim of  their naivete and incompetence, and I did not want to say anything about them that might have reflected poorly on him.  However now that Levi has essentially sold his soul to the devil, there is nothing that I could say which would damage his credibility any further.

Did US Weekly pay Levi and Bristol $100,000 for the scoop on their upcoming fake marriage?

From Page Six:

Money certainly talks. Our sources estimate Us Weekly paid $100,000 to Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston for the story on their engagement. The cash not only bought an exclusive interview with the couple, but also screwed competitor People. The single mom gave interviews to both magazines, but didn't tell People about the engagement or that they'd hidden their reconciliation from Sarah Palin.

Bristol lied to People: "We're not totally back together, but I'm not ruling it out . . . I don't want to get into what's in store for our future because, who knows?" But Us Weekly knew. Bristol hid her left hand in the People photo shoot, though proudly revealed her ring to Us Weekly. An Us Weekly rep said, "We were approached by Bristol and Levi to break the news, and we didn't pay $100,000."

$100,000 BUCKS! Jesus that is a lot of money! No wonder Bristol brought Levi back into her little "bed of faux abstinence!" I mean can you imagine US Weekly paying that kind of money for the announcement of the Bristol Palin/Ben Barber engagement? Hell no! Barber is not a marquee name! He does not inspire tongues to wag and billfolds to open.

Once the bun in Bristol's oven began to rise it simply HAD to be Levi!

So Levi and Bristol get to split $100,000. Not bad. Of course if we know Sarah Palin's little girl, Levi will probably not get a chance to even smell that money before Bristol puts it into a bank account, the number of which he will be told not to worry his handsome little head about.

Of course Levi should be used to having somebody else control his money since he was also put on an allowance by Rex Butler, who only allowed Levi enough money to pay his rent and go hunting once in awhile. Of course at that same time Rex and former bouncer Tank Jones were opening an ostentatious watering hole simply called "The Office" in mid-town, which features two huge leather thrones to cushion their grifter asses . Gee I wonder how they managed to scrape together enough money to do that?

By the way for those who are still accepting the story that "mommy fearest" was not aware of this engagement, you need to be aware that in order to broker a payday this large Bristol would have had to have her attorney work out the details. That attorney is Thomas Van Flein who, by no coincidence whatsoever, is also the attorney that Sarah has on a $10,000 a month retainer. You can bet your ass that Van Flein would NEVER dare to cross Mama Grizzly by helping Bristol and Levi go behind her back to make this announcement. He knows full well who the real golden goose in the family is, and also what a vindictive bitch that goose can be.

Now the only question remaining is how to work Bristol's swelling extremities and bulging baby belly into the storyline of their new reality show? Perhaps they can say that while Levi was posing for Playgirl he was bitten by a radioactive porn star and now his sperm have super potency powers. Meaning that in six weeks after they are married and can "finally" re-consummate their relationship, his special Levi Johnston baby batter will hunt down Bristol's defenseless egg and fertilize it so aggressively that it will fast forward Bristol's pregnancy four months in a single weekend!

What? Is that really any dumber than a the story of Sarah's last "pregnancy"?

You just can't keep a REAL Alaska woman down. Mercede Johnston is back!

As I have mentioned a few times in my posts Sadie received a LOT of negativity for speaking out on her blog.

Much of what happened did not happen in cyberspace so most people are not aware of how bad it got.

However it looks like Sadie wants to address it so perhaps you will all get a better idea sometime in the future.

In the meantime I am sure that most of you have read these ugly comments from Rex Butler.

Rex Butler says that while Mercede Johnston is free to write what she wants, she won't be privy to information from anyone with "Team Levi." And Butler said Levi's team isn't sharing information with her about his plans, movements or other actions.

Yeah well take it from one who knows "Team Levi" consists of one overworked lawyer, one narcissistic private investigator, and one clueless Wasilla fish out of water.  In fact Levi is probably the member of the "team" who has the least control over what happens.

Believe me there is much that has gone on behind the scenes that people do not yet know about.  But perhaps now that Rex and Tank have lost control over their meal ticket, and he is sleeping with (and taking direction from)  the "enemy", that needs to change.

In the meantime why don't you all head over to Sadies's blog and welcome her back. 

Personally I think it is time to walk away from "Team Levi" and support somebody who is NOT being controlled by others.  What do you say gang?  How does "Team Mercede" sound?

Sarah Palin's hired gun gives Levi Johnston both barrels.

This just showed up on the TMZ website.

The lawyer for Sarah Palin's kid is scoffing at legal docs filed by Levi's lawyer -- docs claiming Levi made but a pittance over the last few years and should not have to pay $1,688.42 a month in child support - which is what Bristol wants.

Levi says the best he's done in the income department so far is last year -- claiming he made approximately $101,000. Apparently Palin's not buying it, because her lawyer issued subpoenas today to CNN, Playgirl, Entertainment Tonight, The Insider, Star Magazine, and National Enquirer, asking for hard figures on how much they paid Levi.

And there's what Palin's lawyer believes is a smoking gun. Levi claimed in legal docs that he made no more than $10,000 a year prior to 2009. But in the new docs, Palin's lawyer attached Levi's pay stub from 2008, showing he raked in $18,594.50 from one employer - a construction company in Alaska.

This is just more bad news for Levi.

The thing that is so frustrating is that Van Flein is clearly trying to drain Levi's resources by making him respond to one legal challenge after another. There is NO way he can compete with Sarah Palin's money, and they know it. So they plan to empty his pockets and make him completely unable to fight back anymore.

They also plan to occupy so much of Rex Butler's time responding to legal paperwork that he will not be able to attend to his other cases and continue to make a living. The day that I visited Rex's office he had case files and unopened mail stacked all over the place, and that was BEFORE this custody case started. One can only imagine how far behind he is now.

And just think if Van Flein had gotten his way ALL of this would be happening behind closed doors and NOBODY would know just how petty and ugly the Palin's were planning to get.

But since Van Flein wants to play things this way perhaps it is time to find out how much BRISTOL made in 2009! And is there any way to get information about that LLC? I bet THAT is especially interesting.

Update: Somebody asked in the comments HOW TMZ gets this information so quickly. I do not yet have proof but I am fairly confident that Van Flein is funneling them information. The real question is do they pay for that information? And in whose pocket does that money end up?

Update2: And yes if you look at the net amount Levi only made $11,771.34 on that job, which I believe was his only job that year. So Van Flein's explosive revelation is that Rex Butler rounded down in estimating that Levi made around $10,000 that year, and therefore was off by $1,771.34.

I guess in Palin-land that is a huge lie, but a fake story about a threat of gang rape against your two girls, or a denial that your husband was a member of the AIP is no big deal.

Update3; It looks like Levi's sister Mercede has gotten wind of the new legal maneuverings from the Palins:

Recently I have become more and more baffled and heartbroken. I can not wrap my head around how one family could be so cruel and ruthless. Why would one want to deny their child the love of both familys? It's crystal clear I cherish that precious baby boy with every bone in my body. I would do and will do anything and everything I can for my nephew. What happened to FAMILY VALUES?!?

You can almost see the pain in her words.

Here is the video of Levi Johnston at Sherry's sentencing that I promised you.

This was filmed by Dennis Zaki.

Damn I guess Sherry will not make it out in time for Thanksgiving after all.

Well at least Levi has somebody who honestly wants him to spend the holidays with them. Still, it has to kind of break your heart seeing him without his family like that.

At least ET gets the Sherry Johnston sentencing details right.

ET confirms that Levi Johnston's mother Sherry Johnston has been sentenced to five years in jail, following her guilty plea to a drug charge stemming from her arrest last December.

Sherry's lawyer tells us she only faces two years of actual incarceration: Two of her five years were suspended, and she'll receive one year of "good time" credit as well as credit for the three months she's already served. She could possibly serve her time at home via an ankle monitor due to her lack of criminal history, her lawyer adds.

Sherry also faces three years of probation once she gets out of jail or off the ankle monitor.

Her lawyer tells ET that Levi and his sister Mercede were on hand for their mother's sentencing, and the judge called this a mitigated and unusual case. The state said they expect Sherry to do well on probation.

The difference between this article and the ADN article is that ET actually TALKED TO SHERRY'S ATTORNEY! Which is what I did, and why I also knew that Sherry was headed back home.

Sherry Johnston hopefully headed home for the holidays, and my afternoon with "Team Levi".

Today was Sherry Johnstons's sentencing. And I decided that since no other media in town seemed interested in covering it, that I should go and report back what I witnessed.

I left my house at 9:00 A.M. to make the hour long drive to the Palmer Courthouse, in order to be there in time for the 10:30 sentencing.

I have to say that Alaska was really putting on a quite a show today, with a brilliant blue sky and frosted trees along the road that were quite breathtaking. With such scenery to keep my eyes entertained it seemed that I was at the courthouse in no time.

I drove up and took a seat inside courtroom number 7, at about 10:15 and waited for the proceedings to begin.

The room had only a few people inside. I saw my friend Dennis Zaki setting up his video camera and waved hello to him, saw a print journalist from, I think CBS, and the rest were just looky loo's who were there to get a look at Team Levi.

A few minutes later the door opened up and the massive Tank Jones stepped into the room. He was quickly followed by the rest of the team, Rex Butler, Mercede Johnston, a young man whose name I did not catch, and Levi himself.

The whole group was dressed in expensive clothes and looked like they could have stepped right off the pages of GQ magazine. (Of course with cameras on them all of the time now they have learned not to go out looking shabby, because guaranteed THAT is the one picture that will show up in a tabloid.)

As the rest of the gang sat down, Tank walked over to shake my hand, and to give me hard time about being a "pretend journalist". We bantered back and forth for a few minutes and then he went back and sat with the kids.

A little after ten thirty a door at the side of the courtroom opened up and Sherry Johnston was escorted in wearing handcuffs. I immediately noticed how thin she looked in her yellow prison outfit, and wondered if her health had taken a turn for the worse.

Sherry looked up, and seeing her children immediately caused her eyes to well up with tears. As she took her seat next to attorney Rex Butler, I noticed as she reached up to wipe a tear away and suddenly realized just how hard it must have been for her to be separated from her family for these last three months.

We all stood up for the entrance of Judge Eric Smith. Then the prosecutor read the charges that Sherry had plead guilty to, Rex Butler spoke a few words about Sherry's medical situation and some special conditions that they previously worked out, and then Judge Smith was ready to read the sentence.

The Judge seemed very sympathetic to Sherry's plight and made mention of the fact that this was a very unusual case. (Gee, ya think?) Still, he said, she had broken the law, and selling prescription medication was a serious crime in the Valley. He wanted to make sure that she understood how serious it was and that other potential drug dealers did as well. Still, he said, she had a very clean record up to this point, and had sold her Oxycontin to just ONE person, a total of only three times. And he did not anticipate her making this mistake again.

Then the judge delivered his sentence; 3 years in prison, a $2,400.00 fine, and three years of probation, (She should be able to serve her three years in her home with an ankle monitor, once the state checks and makes sure her home is compliant with the regulations). He further stated that he did not expect to see her in his courtroom ever again under similar circumstances, but hoped that someday she might return to serve on one of his juries. Rex Butler told the judge not to worry, that Sherry would NEVER be back in front of him again. And then Sherry thanked the judge for his kind words.

Sherry was then led away in handcuffs as her family stood by and waved to her as she passed. (It will take a few days to process, but there is some hope she will be home in time for Thanksgiving.)

(I had hoped to get some pictures, or video, to post with this story. But Dennis made a deal to sell what he filmed to another media outlet so I have to wait, and link to them when they post it, or borrow it and embed it here once its online. Either way, I will make sure you all get a chance to see some video.)

With the sentencing over we were asked to clear the courtroom for the next trial, so we all poured out into the hallway.

Once there Tank called me over and introduced me to Levi. I had never met young Mr. Johnston before and found him to be a very typical nineteen year old, with a good sense of humor and pleasant demeanor.

I spent about an hour talking to Levi and Mercede in the hallway as Tank and Rex made business calls. We spoke about Levi's adventures, and how happy he was to be back. I listened as Mercede engaged in some good natured teasing of Levi about his clothes, and we both gave him kind of a hard time about a laptop carrying case that looked suspiciously like a "man purse". (Later when they went outside for some photographs I suggested that Levi give the bag to somebody else to hold, just to give his detractors one less thing to give him crap about.)

I know you are all wondering if I asked about "babygate" or Levi's book, and to be honest, no I did not. We were in a fairly crowded hallway and I did not want to talk about those sensitive topics with so many ears close by. We DID talk about a number of things, but I cannot share too much with you here because, in order to put them at ease, I told them our conversation would be off the record.

I can share with you that Levi has NO idea what Sarah is building on her property however. He also shared some of his feelings about Sarah, but I will not repeat them here. He also misses his son and hopes to be with him soon. Beyond that I need to honor my promise.

I will tell you that I was again struck by how attractive and well spoken Mercede is in person, and impressed with how natural she is in front of the camera. Even though she says she wants to pursue a medical or law degree, I think she could have a future in broadcasting. I am just saying.

All in all I really enjoyed meeting Levi and was very impressed with his dedication to his family. (He interrupted his publicity tour for Playgirl and flew back into town just to support his mom) It is easy to ridicule Levi for being a fame junkie, or for chasing after attention ala Sarah Palin, but that is missing the point entirely.

Levi is doing the only thing he can to pay the bills. He has a son that he loves, a sister that is just now finishing school, and a mother who has been locked away from her family for three months! Who else is there to bring home the bacon? Levi is the only person with the means to support this family. Who do you think is going to pay that $2,400 fine? Or the house payment? Or the utilities?

I know what you are going to say, "Then why doesn't he just write the book?'

And my answer, "Who says he isn't?"