Barack Obama's new Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano is a pretty smart lady: current governor of Arizona, former U.S. attorney and state Attorney General. Clearly, she is well-prepared to take a top cabinet position, on account of not being married!

At least, that's what Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell said the other day, speaking near a microphone he assumed was off.

Hint to politicians: the microphone is always, always on…

"Janet's perfect for that job," Rendell is heard to say. "Because for that job, you have to have no life. Janet has no family. Perfect. She can devote, literally, 19, 20 hours a day to it."

Now Ed Rendell is under fire for being jerky, and sexist, because "has no family" is code for "unmarried" (and as every single lady knows, your relatives get revoked if you don't put a ring on it by age 35).

Chuck Ardo, spokesman for Rendell, denied the remarks were sexist, saying the governor takes Napolitano's qualifications "for granted."

"His comments simply referred to the demands of the new position that she is going to take," Ardo said around noon. "He believes that public servants at that level of government have no lives, including himself."

Ed Rendell, for whatever it's worth, is married with one son. His wife, Marjorie O. Rendell, is a judge on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, chair of a U.S. Judicial Conference Committee and an elected member of the American Law Institute.

I guess we can assume she has no life either, in that she is married to Ed Rendell.

They're going to have to drag Sarah Palin out of Pennsylvania kicking and screaming, but when it happens, she'll at least be headed to a place near and dear to her heart… Ohio.

But then after that (and maybe one more stop in Florida), she's going home to Wasilla, Alaska…

According to aides, Sarah Palin will return to Alaska to vote on Election Day.

She will travel to Anchorage the evening of Monday November 3rd and then drive to her hometown of Wasilla–about an hour away from Anchorage…

It is customary for candidates to return to their home state to vote on Election Day, but due to the amount of time it takes to fly to Alaska and the need for the GOP Vice-Presidential nominee to continue campaigning it was not confirmed until now.

McCain staffers insist that, after voting, the governor will be jetted down to Phoenix for McCain's election night party, but Palin shouldn't believe that until she sees it. There are plenty of reasons to keep her up in Alaska, including:

* The flight to Arizona will take upwards of six hours.

* There's not even enough space for McCain at his party, so why would there be any for her?

* If she really wants room, she should try Ted Stevens' newly remodeled house.

* By the time the results come in, McCain will have left her for a younger, wealthier running mate.

But there are also reasons that Palin really should be at the party in Phoenix. For one, it might be a chance to get John Rich's autograph. And what if there's a beautiful meteor shower in the Arizona sky that night?

And she'd definitely want to be there just in case — and this is admittedly going way out on a limb here — McCain wins.

Here is yet another delectable morsel from the Couric-Palin sitdown that we've been discussing for days.

Notice the guy next to Sarah Palin, the one who can't stop giggling? He wants America to know that if prole voters dare ask an elected official a question, they will be engaging in gotcha journalism.

And that's not putting country first…

See? She didn't hear the question, when she said that very wrong thing about Pakistan! It was a pizza place! (It was actually a cheesesteak place.) There's no context! There was crosstalk! There was a group of people! The question was hollered out from across an, um, area! Cheez Whiz!

But Palin rolls on undaunted from her brush with enemy fire, according to a top McCain aide. In fact, she's planning to take more media heat this week as she preps for her first debate…

"She's seen the reviews and heard the criticism, but she's a fighter," said this aide. "And now she's in a fighting mood."

Palin heads to McCain's cabin in Arizona today to prepare for her Thursday debate, and while she's there she'll do a round of conservative talk radio interviews.

Yikes! That'll be a violently mild fight.