Washington: Sarah Palin`s husband jumped to
her defence on Friday after an upcoming book claimed the
Republican politician snorted cocaine off an oil drum and had
a premarital fling with an African-American basketball star.
"The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin" by Joe
McGinniss -- who moved in next to Palin`s home in Alaska last
year as part of his research -- comes out Tuesday, as the Tea
Party darling ponders whether to formally seek the Republican
presidential nomination.
"This is a man who has been relentlessly stalking my
family to the point of moving in right next door to us to
harass us and spy on us to satisfy his creepy obsession with
my wife," husband Todd Palin said.
"His book is full of disgusting lies, innuendo, and
smears," he added in a statement carried by several US news
media and political blogs.
"Even the New York Times called this book `dated, petty,`
and that it `chases caustic, unsubstantiated gossip.`"
Citing unnamed "publishing sources," the National
Enquirer said McGinniss claims in the book that Palin had "a
steamy interracial hookup" with Glen Rice less than a year
before she and Todd Palin eloped in 1988.
Sarah Palin was then a local television sports reporter
just out of college, and Rice -- a now-retired National
Basketball Association all-star -- was in Alaska with his
Michigan college team for a tournament, it said.
"Todd was very much in the picture at the time and the
couple married just nine months later," the supermarket
tabloid said, adding that McGinniss quotes Rice as confirming
the one-night stand.
McGinniss also writes that both Palins "dabbled" with
cocaine, and that before she became Alaska`s governor in 2006,
Sarah Palin was seen snorting cocaine "off an overturned
55-gallon oil drum while snowmobiling with pals," the weekly
added.
PTI
