I have some sympathy for Sarah Palin. She's got at least three fulltime jobs that I know of. There's the whole wife and mother thing, which any wife and mother will tell you takes a fair amount of time and energy. Then there's being governor, which is no walk in the park. And, of course, there's maneuvering for the Republican presidential nomination with its attendant appearances, speeches, fund-raising and so on.

Now, I know there are plenty of people out there in Saralove-land who think she can do all that while performing open heart surgery and preventing Lex Luthor from dropping California into the Pacific Ocean to improve the value of his real estate holdings in Nevada.

But the truth is, she can't. And it really shows in the little dust-up over her mid-session introduction of a couple of bills she says absolutely have to pass this session: one that's supposed to move an in-state gas pipeline forward and the other consolidating Railbelt utilities.

Neither one of these undertakings is simple. One example will suffice. Palin previously ballyhooed her goal of having 50 percent of Alaska's energy produced by renewable sources by 2025. That's not going to happen without at least one big hydroelectric project serving southcentral Alaska. But the instate gas pipeline won't be financially feasible without shipping a lot of gas to provide heat and lights in southcentral Alaska. There's not enough market for both projects. So which is it going to be?

These and other questions have to be answered before any bill will pass. But for one reason or another - maybe because Palin spent two months campaigning for vice president rather than minding the store in Alaska - the bills didn't get introduced until last week, too late to get the work done this session.  But she's issuing press releases saying the legislature should pass the bills this session anyway.

Why? Well, it is in the nature of governors to try to muscle legislatures around. But Palin has added incentive: Being seen as a decisive, forward-thinking governor is important to the image-making surrounding her national ambitions. In that job - the running for president job - she doesn't have to actually get the bills passed. She just has to be able to point to them as proof of her qualifications for national office. And if she fails to get the bills passed, she'll just blame the legislature.

And that's the problem. If she wants to be an effective governor, Palin has to have a working relationship with the legislature. And that's not going to happen as long as she continues to treat legislators as campaign props and punching bags.

Where Are We? I Mean, When Are We?

The powerful House Judiciary Committee, of which I was, fleetingly, a powerful member, moved from hearings on the death penalty to hearings on anti-abortion bills. I guess maybe that when the rest of the world moved from the 20^th century to the 21^st century, the House Judiciary Committee hearing room moved in the other direction: from the 20th century to the 19^th century.

Memo to the Life Maintenance Department

Every once in a while, even powerful state legislators have to do life maintenance. In Juneau that usually means laundry - which is one of my hobbies - and grocery shopping -which definitely is not. (I may not be the world's worst shopper, but according to the woman who lets me live with her, I'm in the bottom 10.)

But this week it meant flying to Anchorage to do some personal errands and, of course, to serve pizza at House District 25 and 26 and Senate District M constituent meeting.

Commercial! Commercial! Commercial!