On Monday evening, Sarah Palin’s former staff in the Alaska governor’s office requested another delay in making public 25,000 e-mails exchanged by Palin, her husband and her senior aides.

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

The governor’s office is asking the state’s attorney general to approve a delay of five more months, until May 30, 2011.

 At that point, the request filed by msnbc.com and other news organizations will have been pending for 986 days.

 Sarah Palin was governor of Alaska for 966 days.

 In other words, if the delay is granted, the wait for the e-mails will have lasted longer than the Palin administration.

 News organizations, including NBC News, msnbc.com and the Associated Press, requested the e-mails in 2008 after the relatively unknown Palin was chosen as Republican Sen. John McCain’s vice-presidential candidate.

 We’re told that there are about 25,700 e-mails, with an unknown number of pages. That’s not exactly what any of the news organizations asked for, as explained below, but it’s what the governor’s office says it will consider releasing.

 They include these e-mails: anything sent to or from the governor or her husband, Todd Palin (either from their government or private Yahoo accounts) to the government accounts of 53 people: the governor, her husband, and 51 key state employees, including current and former top aides, gas pipeline commission members and members of her Cabinet.The state says it plans to release some, and withhold some, of the e-mails it has collected, following the exemptions allowed in the public records law.

 The state regulations allow the attorney general to approve a delay if fulfilling a public records request would substantially impair the functioning of the office. Monday’s request for a delay is the 15th sent by the governor’s administrative director, Linda J. Perez, to the attorney general.