Update, Monday 3 p.m.: Claims of plagiarism are "just silly," a Gingrich spokesman tells Politico.

Update, Monday 8:40 a.m.: Here's Van Flein's full letter, along with Palin's prepared text of the speech.

Update, Sunday 11 p.m.: Gov. Palin's personal attorney, Thomas Van Flein, on behalf of the governor, is taking strong issue with any suggestion that Palin improperly used material from Gingrich in her speech last week.

"Mr. Dunn has made the serious, and false, accusation that the Governor plagiarized text from Newt Gingrich," Van Flein wrote in a letter to the ADN. "...Far from 'lifting' or plagiary, this is proper attribution in a political speech. The audience was made aware that Mr. Gingrich wrote about President Reagan’s legacy, and Governor Palin attributed her paraphrasing to Mr. Gingrich expressly and did so at the beginning and at the end of the paraphrasing. Labeling this type of commentary plagiarism is defamatory. It is also simply false."

Original post:

From David Hulen in Anchorage --

Yes, writes blogger Geoffrey Dunn on the Huffington Post. He says the governor's introduction of talk show host Michael Reagan Wednesday night borrowed heavily, and with only partial attribution, from a 2005 article co-written by Newt Gingrich. Dunn's original post last night said it was "a pure case of unadulterated plagiarism," and the headline read "Palin Plagiarizes Gingrich in Anchorage Speech." The post was subsequently softened to say "lifted." It's set off a moderate buzz in the they-love-her/they-don't-love-her Palin blogosphere. The governor's defenders argue she attributed the comments adequately (she mentioned Gingrich twice), and that Dunn's piece is an unwarranted attack. Meanwhwile, the Dunn item is being widely linked on left-leaning blogs. Links, audio and video below.

The background:

Reagan was in town to give a speech, "What Would Ronald Reagan Do Today?" at the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts. Palin introduced him. The liberal Alaska blogger Mudflats went and the next day posted a partial transcript under the headline “Screw Political Correctness” Sarah Palin in Her Own Words, a version of which was also posted on the HuffPost.

Audio of Palin's 17-minute speech was made by Alaska photographer/videographer Dennis Zaki, and over the next day or two it spread around the Internet. CNN blogged on Palin's criticism of Obama, Rush Limbaugh weighed in (focusing, with praise, on her anti-big government remarks), the site Conservatives4Palin urged readers to listen to the speech ("It's amazing. She's amazing."), liberal Alaska blogger and radio host Shannyn Moore did her own HuffPost piece ("Michael Reagan and Sarah Palin...dream team for liberals' nightmare.") Reaction continued to spread.

In his post last night, the HuffPost's Dunn, an unabashed critic of Palin who is writing a book about her, said the governor "repeatedly lifted from an article written four years ago by Newt Gingrich and Craig Shirley without attribution. While Palin twice mentioned Gingrich in the speech (she never acknowledged Shirley), she frequently mixed her own remarks about [Ronald] Reagan with passages that appear to be pulled directly from the Gingrich-Shirley article." Dunn gives nine examples.

Mentions of the words "plagiarism" were edited out of Dunn's post overnight (although it remains in the URL as of noon). Was it plagiarism? Improper "lifting"? Palin mentions the Gingrich article at the start of her remarks, as Dunn notes, and quotes pretty much directly from it. She does so again a few minutes into her remarks. Dunn cites other examples where her words were similar to the article but with no attribution.

There's pushback today from the pro-Palin side of the blogosphere. The gist: That Palin adequately covered herself by mentioning the Gingrich article at the start of the speech and again later. "Gov. Palin acknowledged both Newt Gingrich and the article the former House Speaker wrote, as Dunn admits twice," writes the blog Taxas4Palin. "How can paraphrasing be considered plagiarizing when both the author and the source are cited?"

Meanwhile, Zaki has posted video of Palin's remarks in two clips: