On his Air America show last Thursday, Thom Hartmann said he’d heard scuttlebutt suggesting that there’s more to Sarah Palin’s abrupt announcement that she would not be speaking at the Reagan library in Simi Valley, Calif., on Aug. 8, than has been reported.

The rumor, according to Hartmann, had it that Nancy Reagan put the kibosh on Palin’s appearance at the library, probably because she does not like the ugly turn the party of Reagan has taken of late and sees Palin as one of the chief instigators. This certainly sounds plausible, but who knows?

The event was not organized or sponsored by the library. The Simi Valley Republican Women, Federated — of which we can promise you Nancy is not a member — had hired the hall for a celebration of its 50th anniversary.

Palin’s gig at the Reagan library was a persistent thread in the cable chatter about her resignation as Alaska’s governor last month. It seemed to counterbalance a similar thread in which her parting shots at the media (”Stop makin’ stuff up.”) were compared with Richard Nixon’s retirement announcement in 1962 when he told reporters, “You won’t have Dick Nixon to kick around anymore.”

(The parallels between Nixon and Palin end there, however. By 1962, Nixon had been a U.S. congressman, a senator, vice president for two terms and the GOP nominee for president. Palin’s career in politics so far has included a stint as a mayor of a town of 12,000, half of one term as a small-state governor and a stint as the GOP candidate for vice president.)

Palin’s spokeswoman, Meghan Stapleton, announced Palin’s change of mind on Palin’s Facebook page. (Stay classy, Sarah.) Palin will be replaced at the event by John Ziegler, a producer of rightwing propaganda films and one of the high priests in the cult of Palin’s perpetual victimhood.

A spokeswoman for the Simi Valley group told a reporter for a local newspaper:

“I had direct knowledge as of yesterday. I am not going to comment on how or from whom,” said Saraceno.

“There’s no harm, no foul. We always respected the (former) governor’s right to change course.”

That was Thursday. On Saturday, stories began popping on the Intertubes suggesting Palin and her husband Todd were getting divorced. The speculation began after Todd told Fox News he was going back to work in the oil fields, despite the fact that his wife recently signed a book deal said to be worth $11 million.

Multiple sources in Wasilla and Anchorage (including a former Palin staffer) have confirmed the split.

A National Enquirer story exposing previous affairs on both sides led to a deterioration of their marriage and the stress from that led to Palin’s resignation as governor of Alaska last week.

The Palins were noticeably not speaking to each other for most of last Sunday’s resignation speech in Fairbanks. Sarah ditched Todd right after the speech and left without him. [More about this below.] Sarah removed her wedding ring a couple of weeks ago.

Sarah has recently purchased land in Montana and is considering moving the family there. Sarah Palin is originally from Idaho.

Alaska Report linked to story published on Monday by Norah O’Donnell of MSNBC, who reported that Sarah Palin ditched Todd immediately after her resignation ceremony:

After swearing in the new governor, Palin made a quick exit with daughter Piper and son Trigg in tow. She jumped in a Chevy Silverado twin cab driven by her security detail.

Todd Palin followed just seconds behind, and was left struggling to avoid a phalanx of cameras. The problem: His family had already left.

After reviewing our camera tape, you can hear someone ask, “No car for Todd?” Then Todd, the former First Dude, laughs and says, “They left me.”

Alaska Report says it was the first news source to announce Palin was running for governor and the first to reveal that John McCain had chosen Palin as his running mate last year.

The Palin camp has denied the rumors, of course.