Those are some expensive e-mails

A story by investigative reporter Bill Dedman of MSNBC says Gov. Sarah Palin's office has quoted people as much as $15 million for copies of the governor's e-mails. See the story here: www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27228287/

Dedman breaks down a request by the Associted Press for all state e-mails sent to Palin's husband, Todd. Palin's office told the AP it would take six hours for a programmer to assemble the e-mails of just one state employee (Todd Palin is not a state employee), another two hours to run a security check on the e-mails, then five hours to search each e-mail for a word or topic requested by the AP.

The total, according to the MSNBC report, broke down to this: $73.87 an hour to search for the e-mails, or $960.31 for one e-mail account. If the AP is looking for all state e-mails sent to Todd Palin, those e-mails could have come from any one of the 16,000 full-time state employees in Alaska. To search all those, the AP was quoted $15,364,960.

Regardless of the costs, Palin's office has said most of the e-mails people are seeking won't be available until after the Nov. 4 election. What the interest in Alaska's governor will be then by Outside news organiztions is unclear.

-Michael Rovito, reporter