Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's SarahPAC has donated money to the campaigns of Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Orrin Hatch of Utah, as well as to Republican Ohio Senate candidate Rob Portman, according to a Friday filing with the Federal Election Commission.

The exact amounts of the contributions were not reported, but Palin had to list the names of candidates she had financially supported to make SarahPAC a bona fide political action committee.

Her contributions to Arizona Sen. John McCain, for whom she served as a running mate in the 2008 presidential campaign, and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski had been reported in a previous filings

Clearly, Notepad isn't yet on Newsweek columnist Howard Fineman's radar. But it looks like we see former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in the same light.

A month ago, this space had an item entitled "Why Sarah Palin is No Richard Nixon." Fineman posted "Sarah, You're No Nixon" on Newsweek's Web site this weekend.

Fineman's take, in a nutshell, is that at best Palin could hope to be the worst of Nixon.

Another argument can be made, that Palin, in a Nixonian formulation, won't get that far because she quit.

Hat tips to Howard, an industry star who doesn't act like one in D.C. green rooms, for his elegant writing style -- and for having met Nixon.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is atop the standings of 2012 Republican presidential candidate prospects in a new poll.

A Washington Post/ABC News poll conducted from July 15 through July 18 places the rock-music-playing evangelical as the favorite of 26 percent of Republicans and GOP-leaning independents, 5 percentage points ahead of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, 7 points ahead of soon-to-be-former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and 16 points ahead of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

The also-rans (below 5 percent) in the Post poll were retiring Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (4 percent), former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (3 percent) and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (1 percent). Two percent volunteered support for Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, even though his name was not provided by pollsters.

But polls differ on this speculative matter, as you'd expect roughly three years out from the next Republican National Convention. A Gallup poll released July 16 showed Romney in the lead at 26 percent, with Palin second at 21 percent -- and Huckabee third at 19 percent.

For the longest time, reporters and watchdog groups scanned House campaign finance reports almost exclusively to find out which special interests and big-name donors were funding the campaigns of powerful lawmakers.

The stories were in the receipts, in the suggestions of quids and quos.

But there has been a growing trend in recent years to look at the expenditure side of the ledger, whether for spending on Sarah Palin's sartorial splendor or Charles B. Rangel's lawyers and parking tickets.

It's not that the receipts don't make for good stories -- they continue to account for the bulk of campaign finance reporting -- but the checks campaigns write often make for better stories.

In the moments after she announced she would resign the governorship of Alaska, MSNBC political analyst Pat Buchanan compared Sarah Palin to Richard Nixon in 1966.

Nixon returned from exile following his loss in the 1962 California gubernatorial election -- "You won't have Dick Nixon to kick around anymore" -- to win the presidency in 1968. "We traveled all over the country on behalf of Republican candidates, built up this enormous good will," Buchanan said of a 1966 Nixon barnstorming tour that helped lay the groundwork for his bid two years later.

Buchanan, an aide to Nixon at the time and in the White House, knows better. Palin is no Nixon.