Appearing in the flesh on Saturday Night Live is a time-honored ritual for many political names, including the three biggest of this past election cycle: Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have both put in cold opening cameos, while John McCain actually hosted SNL in 2002. Still, for all the mileage that the show has wrung out of Sarah Palin's vice presidential candidacy, Palin herself has yet to appear on the show — though according to the Chicago Sun Times, that may change very soon. In fact, sources in the McCain camp say that they have a very specific idea in mind to help Palin avenge herself upon the fired, lifeless body of her nemesis, Tina Fey:

Some key McCain staffers are content with Palin joking about the "SNL" routines on the campaign trail — as when she scribbled "I'm not Tina Fey" on a supporter's cell phone and said she'd dressed as Fey on Halloween. But others — including the governor herself — think a return punch on the NBC airwaves is what's needed. I'm hearing some sort of Palin tweak of Fey's American Express commercials is in the works. While next weekend's ''Saturday Night Live'' will be a rerun, it is possible Palin could appear Thursday on the first of NBC's ''Weekend Update'' specials in prime time. Otherwise, the next orginal "SNL'' show will be broadcast Oct. 18, a little more than two weeks before the election.

While we're skeptical that Martin Scorsese would return to spoof the famous American Express commercials he made with Fey, at least we know that Palin would be receptive to his pitch for a Boca time share (after all, her two greatest loves are Jews and Cuban food). Perhaps David Zucker is available as a fill-in? Oh, who are we kidding — after this weekend, of course he is! [Photo Credit: AP]