Palin's Neighbor Rented to Author for Revenge

As the Wasilla world turns: It seems Sarah Palin's next-door neighbor purposely rented her home to author Joe McGinniss because she wanted to exact some revenge. She "was renting her house and sought out the author because the Palins had crossed her (owed her money for renovations she had done at their request and never paid her for)," the author's son explains in an email, which Ben Smith shares on his Politico blog.

"So she knew McGinniss was writing the book and found him and offered him the house," writes Joe McGinniss Jr., adding that she turned down a more lucrative offer from the National Enquirer. He defends his dad's decision to take the rental: "No one is stalking anyone," he says. If "you were writing a biography of Tiger Woods and had the chance to move in with him, or his pool house, or rent next door or down the street from him—it would be journalistic malpractice not to."
(More Sarah Palin stories.)