It's not surprising that a conservative outfit like NewsBusters would take a pro-Sarah Palin stance. And it's not surprising that they'd sometimes go a little overboard in their Palin adulation -- as much as the right loves to complain about irrational hatred from the left, its own worship of the half-term governor who quit to spend more time on Facebook does tend to get a little out of hand.

Then there's Noel Sheppard.

The NewsBusters associate editor has never made any secret about his admiration for Palin. For a while now, he's been serving as her unofficial press office, dutifully republishing every single message the ex-governor posted on Facebook, frequently appending them with a rousing “Hear, hear!”

But in the past couple of days, things have become a little ... weird.

Here's how Sheppard began his blog post this morning on Palin's “Tonight Show” appearance last night:

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin continued her historic climb into the hearts of Americans Friday by appearing on NBC's “Tonight Show” in a small cameo role.

And here's his opening paragraph from a December 10 entry on Palin:

Showing the sense of humor millions of Americans fell in love with last year, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin said Thursday that critics of her previous day's op-ed in the Washington Post “kind of got all wee-weed up about it and wanted to call me and others deniers.”

Yipes ... Perhaps not quite to the same level of Rich "Starbursts" Lowry, but still ...