From The LA Times - to read more about the tensions surrounding Palin during the final weeks of the campaign, go to the Sarah Palin BigNews page.

Reporting from Phoenix — Sarah Palin left the national stage Wednesday, but the controversy over her role on the ticket flared as aides to John McCain disclosed new details about her expensive wardrobe purchases and revealed that a Republican Party lawyer would be dispatched to Alaska to inventory and retrieve the clothes still in her possession…

For weeks, the McCain-Palin campaign has dealt with the fallout from the disclosure that the Republican National Committee was billed for $150,000 in wardrobe purchases for the Palin family — a discovery that was widely ridiculed and undercut Palin’s hockey mom appeal.

Several McCain aides said they had recently discovered that Palin’s traveling staff had used personal credit cards to spend as much as $20,000 to $30,000 on additional wardrobe items for Palin.

When Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) returns to Alaska today, she faces a far different political landscape than when she was thrust onto the national stage in August. Her approval among Alaskans has plummeted 12 points, and she returns to face mounting scandals including Troopergate and the dispute over her family’s travel expenses that she charged to the state. The Anchorage Daily News wonders, “Can Sarah Palin go home again?“:

In the 68 days since Alaska’s governor began her run for vice president, things have changed on the home front. Some of her former allies are fuming, and former enemies are lying in wait. Public perceptions of the governor have also changed. Has the governor changed as well?

Seeming to signal that she intends to return to the national stage in the future, Palin told Wasilla supporters last night, “I am neither bitter nor vanquished, but very confident in the knowledge that there will be another day.”