Thus ends the saga of how she shocked Iowa’s conservative establishment by cruelly and greedily demanding a massive speaking fee to attend a pro-life event. Except … she never demanded a fee and never told anyone she was willing or able to attend, facts which you would have stumbled across in Politico’s piece had you read down, oh, 30 paragraphs or so.

Bottom line: No speaking engagement, no fee, no story.

Iowa Family Policy Center ACTION received word this morning that Governor Sarah Palin is unable to accept our speaking invitation due to her book tour contractual commitments, which cannot be changed.

We extended our invitation knowing she would be in the middle of her book tour and the chances of her being able to accept any invitations were extremely slim.

She has asked if she could speak at a future mutually agreeable date. She will not accept any fees for her appearance.

To complete your reading about this sorry episode, click here and stick with it. Exit quotation: “Between Kochel and Albrecht, this sounds suspiciously like yet another case of former Romney staffers ‘going rogue’ and badmouthing their meal ticket’s perceived competition.”

Update: That didn’t take long. Scroll down about halfway to see how the principled liberals at Slate have already assimilated Politico’s smear.