The shocking story about the Palin family that emerged today - no, not the baby, the other shocking story, the one about Todd Palin, Sarah’s snowmobile champ husband, and his arrest for drunk driving in 1986 - leads NBC’s Mark Murray to ponder if the McCain campaign are dumping all their bad news about Palin at once while everybody is looking in the other direction, namely towards Louisiana and the oncoming storm.

As ever, the West Wing did it first and they called it ‘Take out the trash day’. Here are Josh and Donna to explain:

Josh: [Saturday nespapers are] a fifth the size.

Donna: What’s take out the trash day?

Josh: Any stories we have to give to the press that we’re not wild about, we give it all in a lump.

Donna: Why do you do it in a lump?

Josh: Instead of one at a time?

Donna: I’d think you’d want to spread them out.

Josh: They’ve got x column inches to fill, right? They’re going to fill them no matter what.

Donna: Yes.

Josh: So if we give them one story, that story’s x column inches.

Donna: And if we give them five stories…

That’s it.  I hereby pronounce a moratorium on all Aaron Sorkin references.  This is not a prime time soap.  It’s an election.  And we should be able to cover it without leaning on “The West Wing.”