Well, the story of the first ever Tea Party convention just gets more and more interesting. The confab is set for Nashville next month and features Sarah Palin along with right-wing birther nut Joseph Farah, which raises all kinds of obvious questions. Such as, is Palin a birther fan? Does she condone the run-away gay and Muslim-hating that Farah so proudly traffics in? Those types of uncomfortable questions seem blindingly obvious given the circumstances, yet the political press remains mum.

But now comes word that Palin's appearance will be closed to the press, and it sounds like virtually the entire Tea Party convention will be hermetically sealed in order to keep nasty, mainstream media reporters.

Set aside the hypocrisy of a grassroots political movement that rallies around a cry of transparency (the way the Tea Party does) suddenly deciding to make sure nobody but paying members are admitted to its convention, and that journalists are not welcomed. More importantly, will the press raise questions about why Palin's refusing to allow her speech to heard and seen by journalists? Will the press ask why Palin is hiding? That would seem to be the next logical move since remember, the same Beltway press corps went bonkers when former vice president Al Gore taught a class as Columbia Univ. and the school asked that it be treated as off the record.

Here, Palin's getting paid big bucks to give a political speech before a convention crowd, but journalists won't be allowed in? If reporters don't raise doubts about that, than I give up.

UPDATED: FWIW, the GOP blog RedState thinks Palin might be making a big mistake by appearing at the Tea Party convention.

UPDATED: According to this Minneapolis Star Tribune report, a limited number of “selected” journalists will be allowed to cover the Tea Party convention. Question: Will Fox News (i.e. Palin's employer) be among the anointed few allowed to cover Palin's speech?