Will the Los Angeles Times ever be embarrassed by Andrew Malcolm?

In a blog post yesterday defending Sarah Palin from “hypocritical wealthy critics” purportedly inaccurately claiming Palin is super rich (when, in fact, she is just really rich), Andrew Malcolm writes that Palin's political action committee sent out a fundraising solicitation. In discussing the email, Malcolm directs readers to a credit card donation page for Palin's PAC.

Meanwhile today, Palin's SARAHPac sent another e-mail appeal out seeking donations to continue her travels and donations in support of “common-sense conservatives.” She said:

We have to make the choice as a nation between continuing on our destructive path of deficit spending that is moving us towards economic disaster, and saying 'enough is enough'.

Let's be clear: there's absolutely no reason for Malcolm to link to a straight-up donation page, other than to get people to donate to Palin's PAC. The donation page doesn't contain the text of Palin's e-mail solicitation, or any sort of news; just choices about how much money you want to give to Sarah Palin, and your credit card info.

We already know Andrew Malcolm, Laura Bush's former press secretary, is a partisan hack. He's shown as much writing for the Times over the years.

The bigger question is why does the Los Angeles Times -- a news organization -- allow its blogger to fundraise for a PAC on a purported news website?