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Sanford impeachment measure to be formally considered.

(CNN) – A special House committee in South Carolina will formally consider an impeachment resolution against Gov. Mark Sanford for the first time next Tuesday, the Republican chairman of the committee told CNN Friday.

The resolution, filed by a handful of House Republicans earlier this week, will be examined by an ad hoc committee of seven lawmakers from both sides of the aisle.

The group will meet for the first time next week, after Sanford provides the legislature with the results of a state Ethics Commission investigation into the governor's travel expenses, Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Harrison said.

The first meeting of the special committee on Tuesday will likely focus on Sanford's infamous trip to Argentina this summer, which led to revelations of an extramarital affair and calls for his resignation. Harrison said the group will then spend the Thanksgiving holiday poring over the Ethics Commission report before meeting again in December to include any additional language in the resolution.

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CEDAR CREEK, Texas (CNN) – Virginia Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell on Wednesday declined to weigh in on Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson’s recent claim that Islam is not a religion, but “a violent political system.”

McDonnell, though, stressed that he reached out to Muslims and visited mosques in Virginia throughout the governor’s race and will continue to do so when he takes office in January.

Muslim groups have called on McDonnell to condemn the remark because Robertson is a longtime political benefactor of the Republican, who won a blowout victory in this year’s closely-watched gubernatorial election.

McDonnell attended law school at CBN University (now Regent University), founded by Robertson, and has accepted thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from the televangelist along with appearing on his show, “The 700 Club.”

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Palin wasn't exactly a welcome presence in Virginia and New Jersey during both governor's races.

CEDAR CREEK, Texas (CNN) – Chris Christie and Bob McDonnell, the soon-to-be-governors of New Jersey and Virginia, both deflected questions Wednesday about why Sarah Palin did not appear with the two Republicans during their respective campaigns.

Christie said he only had three GOP heavyweights visit New Jersey during his campaign - Rudy Giuliani, Tim Pawlenty and Mitt Romney - and each came for a specific reason.

“I had a long standing relationship with Mayor Giuliani,” Christie explained. “Gov. Pawlenty and Gov. Romney both faced the same type of crises financially in their state when they took over that we did.”

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Parnell on Palin book: 'I have enjoyed it'

Cedar Creek, Texas (CNN) – Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell said Thursday he has read "significant portions" of Sarah Palin's new memoir and called it "a great re-telling of her story thus far."

Parnell, who succeeded Palin in Juneau when she resigned her office in July, said he read parts of the book during his flight from Alaska to Texas, where he is attending the Republican Governors Association's annual conference. Palin did not send him a copy of the book, he said.

"It's such a conversational tone, and there is so much in there that I have lived with her, except for the presidential campaign," Parnell told CNN. "I have enjoyed it."

But Parnell said Alaskans have moved on from the drama of the 2008 campaign and are now primarily concerned with local economic issues.

"Most of our focus has returned to our state issues, the gas line, resource development," he said. "People are just concerned about their jobs, just like here. People are focused on the economy.

Palin's daughter Piper, pictured above to Palin's right, traveled with the former Alaska governor throughout the 2008 campaign.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – In her new memoir, "Going Rogue," Palin accuses two national reporters of trying to corner her young daughter Piper on the street in Juneau for an interview several months after the presidential campaign ended - a charge both the journalists and a former Palin campaign aide reject.

Palin writes in her book that after the race ended, "members of the national press continued to hang out in Alaska sniffing for tabloid stuff."

"In one early press conference we noticed that our local reporters were flanked by a couple of reporters from the Lower 48 who'd been hanging out around Juneau in search of material for their own Sarah Palin book," Palin writes. "We never shut our doors to anyone, so people of all kinds attended these press availabilities. But glancing along the side wall, I recognized these particular folks as the same ones who had cornered Piper on her walk home from Harborview Elementary School and talked to her for who knows how long about who knows what."

According to Palin, Piper returned home and told her mother: "Mom, remember those reporters who came on the campaign plane with us? You know, the ones Nicolle [Wallace] said didn't like us very much? They just interviewed me on the sidewalk." Palin adds after the incident, Piper was no longer allowed to walk to or from school by herself.

The journalists in question - Scott Conroy and Shushannah Walshe, authors of the newly-published book "Sarah from Alaska" - deny Palin's characterization. Both traveled with Palin on her campaign plane throughout her 2008 vice presidential bid, and the precocious Palin daughter frequently visited with the press corps and became friendly with them, a fact Palin boasts about in her memoir.

Conroy and Walshe said in a statement Tuesday that in the course of reporting for their book, they conducted 190 interviews, including sit-downs with Palin's parents and her husband Todd.

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Palin helps RGA get discount on 'Going Rogue'.

(CNN) - Sarah Palin helped the Republican Governors Association get a discount on "several thousand" copies of her new book so the group can use them as a fundraising tool, RGA chairman Haley Barbour said Tuesday.

Barbour, the governor of Mississippi, said Palin has been "very gracious as a former governor" and helped the group negotiate a bulk purchase price.

"We purchased them at a great discount, at the publisher's price, God bless her," Barbour said during a conference call with reporters ahead of the RGA's annual conference in Austin, Texas.

"I suspect we are going to raise a whole lot of money with this," Barbour predicted. "Hopefully we'll have to re-order."

Palin is speaking in Missouri in December.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Reporters won't be allowed to cover Sarah Palin's convocation speech at the College of the Ozarks in Missouri on December 2, according to the school.

Elizabeth Andrews, the college's communications director, called the decision "mutual."

"This was per the agreement that the College of the Ozarks had when had when we booked governor Palin for the convocation," she told CNN. "This didn't come from our end or theirs. It was a mutual consent kind of thing."

Andrews said the agreement is not unusual for the school, a Christian college in southern Missouri. She said past events with prominent speakers have also been closed to the press.

"This isn't the first time this has happened," she explained.

Free tickets were distributed when the appearance was first announced in November, but were quickly snatched up. Before the speech, Palin will be signing copies of "Going Rogue" in Springfield, Missouri, about an hour away from the college.

Palin's book will be released Tuesday.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Sarah Palin's new memoir, "Going Rogue," contains plenty of second-guessing about the way John McCain's presidential campaign was conducted.

But Palin writes that the campaign's biggest mistake may have been not making a greater issue out of Barack Obama's former pastor, Jeremiah Wright.

"I was told not to discuss Obama's pastor of twenty years, Jeremiah 'God Damn America' Wright," Palin writes in the book. "I will forever question the campaign for prohibiting discussion of such associations. All the more since these telltale signs of Obama's views, carefully concealed with centrist campaign-speak, have now been brought into light by his appointments and actions in office."

Though much of the book is devoted to re-hashing the internal squabbles that took place within the McCain campaign, it's clear Palin does not hold Obama in high regard.

Looking back at the first presidential debate in Oxford, Mississippi, Palin writes that Obama won - but only because reporters were smitten with the Democrat. Nine out of 10 reporters, to be specific.

"The debate went on as planned, and John did great," Palin writes. "The postgame analysis in the media, though, was that the coolheaded Obama had won the night, displaying a firm grasp of the facts, while John, they tried to convince voters, had seemed irritable and condescending. Granted, 90 percent of the newspeople covering the debate were liberal."

Palin would be 'catastrophic' for the GOP, Plouffe said.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Barack Obama's former campaign manager and John McCain's former campaign manager agree: Sarah Palin would be "catastrophic" for Republicans if she is the party's presidential nominee in 2012.

Steve Schmidt, McCain's former campaign head, first made the assertion in October, telling a Washington audience that the GOP "could have a catastrophic election result" if Palin wins the Republican nomination.

David Plouffe, Obama's 2008 campaign manager, echoed Schmidt's remark in a newly published interview with The New Yorker.

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Lindsey Graham is taking heat in a new ad.

Washington (CNN) - An energy advocacy group is launching another television ad in South Carolina taking aim at Sen. Lindsey Graham for his support of energy legislation that would include a cap-and-trade program.

The 30-second spot is the latest salvo in an ongoing campaign against the Republican by the American Energy Alliance, a group funded in part by oil and gas companies that has spent roughly $375,000 over the last month knocking Graham on South Carolina's radio and TV airwaves.

The newest ad comes one week after Graham was censured by the Charleston County Republican Party for supporting the legislation, the latest indicator of the senator's difficult relationship with grassroots conservatives in his home state.

"Energy is the lifeblood of our economy, from home to work to play," a narrator says in the ad, as viewers are shown images of basic everyday tasks that require electricity, oil and gas. "Energy fuels us.

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Pelosi will be burned in effigy at a Tea Party rally in Virginia next week, the event's organizer told CNN.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – The organizer of a "Tea Party" protest in Virginia says he intends to move forward with plans to burn House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Tom Perriello in effigy next weekend at a rally to protest Democratic health care legislation.

The event is scheduled for next Saturday in Danville, which borders North Carolina and sits at the southern end of Perriello's congressional district. Perriello, a Democrat, narrowly won his House seat in 2008 and is considered a top target of Congressional Republicans in next year's midterm elections.

When news of the rally surfaced Friday, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen condemned the plans as "shocking and despicable."

But Nigel Coleman, the organizer of the Tea Party, told CNN he doesn't see what all the fuss is about. The attention, he said, should be on the Democratic plans to overhaul the health care system.

"We're not going to actually set Perriello on fire or Mrs. Pelosi on fire," Coleman said. "But we have been trying to months to get our point across just how vehemently we are opposed to this health care legislation. For the House vote to come so close and to know that Mr. Perriello is on the other side, it's a kick in the stomach that a lot of people couldn't take."

Coleman said none of Perriello's potential Republican challengers have been invited to the event, which he expects will draw about 100 people.

"Something shocking and despicable is how they've handled this health care legislation," Coleman said, responding to Van Hollen's statement. "Going behind closed doors, writing a bill that is going to fundamentally change what America is. More people are going to be killed by this health care legislation than this bonfire."

Sen. John McCain spoke to reporters in Arizona on Friday.

(CNN) – Sen. John McCain has already received a signed copy of Sarah Palin's new memoir "Going Rogue," but the former Republican presidential nominee hasn't read it yet.

"I've just received a signed copy from her yesterday, so I will read it with interest," the senator told reporters Friday in his home state of Arizona.

While the book contains a healthy dose of score-settling aimed at former McCain campaign aides, the senator stressed that he was "proud and honored" to have had Palin as his running mate.

"One of the things about campaigns that lose, there's always mistakes made and the campaign that wins is always the perfect campaign," he said. "I'm proud of the campaign we ran. I'm proud of Sarah Palin and we continue to have a great and wonderful relationship. So, I'm very proud of the campaign we ran and I have moved forward."

When asked if the book has become "a nuisance," McCain responded no. "It is the usual background noise," he said.

He also responded to a question he has heard over and over again since the campaign ended: Can Palin be a viable presidential candidate herself in 2012?

"Sure," he said. "I think there are a number of viable candidates out there. I think that Sarah Palin is obviously one of them and we'll start through the process in about a year or so of selecting our nominee, but I think she's a very strong force in the Republican Party. I can't predict who's gonna get the nomination but I certainly think she would be competitive."

Palin will visit the Army base in early December.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Sarah Palin will travel to the Fort Hood Army post in early December as part of her national book tour, Palin's publisher confirmed to CNN Friday.

The December 4 visit will come roughly one month after a mass shooting on the base that left 13 people dead and 38 wounded.

The stop, which had not been previously announced, is scheduled for the same day Palin signs books at a store in in the Dallas area.

The former Alaska governor is also making an appearance at Fort Bragg in North Carolina during her tour.

The visit was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

McCain wants suspected terrorists tried in military tribunals.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Sen. John McCain hammered the Obama administration Friday for its decision to try accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four other suspected terrorists in a civilian court in New York.

Mohammed, Ramzi Bin al-Shibh, Walid bin Attash, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali and Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi will all be transferred from Guantanamo Bay to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York - a short distance from the World Trade Center towers that were destroyed in the September 11 attacks.

McCain said in a statement that he is "extremely disappointed" by the decision and argued that the suspects "should be treated as war criminals and tried for their crimes through military tribunals."

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Palin wrote on her Facebook page that the AP got parts of her book wrong in their report.

(CNN) – Sarah Palin's memoir has leaked, but the former Alaska governor is telling supporters - and potential customers - to be cautious about the early reviews.

"As you probably have heard, the AP snagged a copy of my memoir, Going Rogue, before its Tuesday release," Palin wrote Friday on her Facebook page. "And as is expected, the AP and a number of subsequent media outlets are erroneously reporting the contents of the book."

"Keep your powder dry, read the book, and enjoy it!," she wrote. "Lots of great stories about my family, Alaska, and the incredible honor it was to run alongside Senator John McCain. We can't wait to hit the road and meet so many on the book tour! See you in Michigan first ... "