On Tuesday we asked whether a day could go by without Sarah Palin news. Evidently not. In a column for USA Today, Palin defends her decision to headline--to the tune of $100,000--the first Tea Party convention in Nashville, Tennessee. The for-profit event has annoyed would-be attendees for its steep $549 ticket cost and stratospheric speaking fees. While other Republican notables have backed out of the event (Minnesota Rep. Michelle Bachmann, for one) Palin's stickin' to it. Here's her reasoning:

I thought long and hard about my participation in this weekend's event. At the end of the day, my decision came down to this: It's important to keep faith with people who put a little bit of their faith in you. Everyone attending this event is a soldier in the cause. Some of them will be driving hundreds of miles to Nashville. I made a commitment to them to be there, and I am going to honor it.

Then she addresses that $100,000 speaking fee:

I will not benefit financially from speaking at this event. My only goal is to support the grassroots activists who are fighting for responsible, limited government -- and our Constitution. In that spirit, any compensation for my appearance will go right back to the cause.

Finally, she announced that Nashville was just the beginning. She'll also be holding a rally in Searchlight, Nevada--the hometown of embattled Democratic Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid:

This weekend, it's Nashville, but in March, I'll head to Searchlight, Nev., for the kickoff rally at the Tea Party Express III. In April, I'll be in Boston for a Tea Party gathering there. Across the country, tea-partiers will be sharing our vision for America's future, a vision that promotes common sense solutions to out-of-control spending and an out-of-touch political establishment.

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John Hudson