So I'm working on a project now where nodes are mass-imported from a third party. By default, these nodes are unpublished until the delegated party can add additional information that the import can't capture. We publish the node when it's through being reviewed and updated.

To be clear, the workflow looks like:
1) Import nodes (CCK type: "Item"), default status is Unpublished.
2) User with "Reviewer" role looks at the queue of Items that needs reviewed
3) Reviewer reviews Item nodes, then sets them as Published.

Here's the problem though: