The Palin story ...
The Bush connection: John McCain may be trying to distance himself from George Bush, but word is Tucker Eskew, who has been a Bush adviser, was assigned to hit the campaign trail with GOP veepmate Sarah Palin.
• • Plus: Palin's GOP convention speech Wednesday night was co-authored and edited by former Bush speechwriter Matthew Scully.
God squad:Sarah Palin, nee Heath, was raised in the Pentecostal Church but now attends the nondenominational Wasilla Bible Church. "What she says, she lives," said church Pastor Ashley Brown. "What she says is the way she is. Her life matches her words."
• • The ring thing: However, the pastor refused to say whether the wedding of Palin's pregnant daughter, Bristol, 17, and her fiance, Levi Johnston, 18, would take place in the church's near future. A ring on the traditional wedding finger has been spotted on Bristol's left hand.
$$$$$: Here today, gone tomorrow? Antoine Members, the African-American Republican who is running against U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, was crazy about being a Republican on Tuesday but is now thinking about leaving the party!
• • Translation: He feels his trip to the Republican National Convention has been unsuccessful because he can't get the GOPers to cough up the campaign cash.
• • To wit: "I've been thinking about pulling out and running as an Independent," said Members. "I talked to top Illinois party leaders here, but I'm not getting any funding promises. I love the principles of the Republican Party, but the brand has been destroyed by George Bush. I'll make a decision when I return to Chicago," Members told Sneed.
AmBush 'em: First lady Laura Bush ate at the Mission American Kitchen in Minneapolis on Monday night with a group of friends ... rather than hitting the classy eateries where the TV anchors were munching.
• • No web for Charlotte: Hilarious Bill Geist, who does fun feature segments on the "CBS Sunday Morning" show, was spotted eating a pork chop in the swine barn at the State Fair in Minneapolis earlier this week.
• • Actor Jon Voight, a rare Hollywood conservative, told a local reporter that his son told him his estranged daughter, Angelina Jolie, was drawn to John McCainyears ago ... but doesn't know how she'll vote now. And Voight still hasn't seen his new Pitt/Jolie grandchildren.
• • Tylenol Ty: Now that he's out of politics, legal eagle Ty Fahner, our former Illinois attorney general who handled the tainted Tylenol case years ago, tells Sneed he feels free to say what's on his mind: like MSNBC anchor "Chris Matthews is a simple-minded puke!" There ya go.
Former GOP gubernatorial contender Judy Baar Topinka, who lost to Gov. Blago, claims she is now Republican "landfill."
• • Translation: "I've been duly forgotten and pigeonholed because I'm a female ... and brought here to fill the role of an alternate delegate ... like landfill," she chirped. Oh, that Judy.
Illinois delegates are complaining their convention floor seating is lousy because Barack Obama is from Illinois.
Former Gov. Jim Thompson tells Sneed he has had 22 bagboys (assistants) since he was governor -- and one of them, Tim Romani, was construction manager of the Pepsi Center, where the Dem National Convention was held in Denver.