Here’s Daniel Henninger, the WSJ’s “Wonder Land” columnist, lionizing Sarah Palin:

In a less crazed world, the Sarah Palin story — hunter and snowmobiling mom becomes Alaska governor and routs old-boy political machine in bed for years with energy industry — would be celebrated. Of course, they have to demolish her.

Sarah’s story is the stuff of Erin Brockovich movies and full-page newspaper spreads. Except: She’s “pro-life,” is a “Christian,” and unlike all the stiff white guys who came in second, Sarah looks like she might help get a Republican elected.

I don’t know who “they” are, and I think it’s weird Henninger knows Palin well enough to use her first name. But I do know that Erin Brockovich may be a more apropos comparison for Palin than Henninger suspects. Here’s something from a Salon investigative piece by Kathleen Sharp, which got too little notice at the time:

[…M]any plaintiffs in the Hinkley case say the movie misrepresents what happened. Far from being the populist victory the movie depicts, the Hinkley lawsuit was a case study in how the rise of private arbitration, as an alternative to costly public trials, is creating a two-tiered legal system that not only favors litigants who can afford it over those who cannot, but is open to potential conflicts of interest and cronyism.

The case never went to trial, because Pacific Gas & Electric, the utility accused of polluting Hinkley, and the plaintiffs’ lawyers agreed to private arbitration before a panel of for-hire judges, some of whom had socialized with the plaintiffs’ attorneys.

Now, many of the townspeople who sued complain their awards were smaller than they deserved. Some have even hired lawyers to get back excessive legal fees charged to children. They say the attorneys kept their awards for six months after the settlement money was delivered, and that they didn’t receive interest on it. They complain that there was little or no apparent logic behind the varying amounts of money individual plaintiffs received; some claim that the arbitrators never even looked at their medical records.