Adapted from: http://drupal.org/node/113119

The goal: allow users with a certain role to bypass moderation so the site admin does not need to review posts by trusted users.

This mini module solution assumes your content is set to be moderated by default. Posts are altered so as to be non-moderated for users of one fixed role. In this code, the role would be named 'myfriend'. Change this to whatever you like. Note that for site admins (with the 'administer nodes' permission), the moderation flag is not changed, since these users can change it themselves in the node form and may want the node to remain in moderation.

Save the code as special.module without the training ?> and edit the role name, then enable the module.

// Mini module for Drupal 4.7.x

/**
* Implementation of hook_help().
*/
function special_help($section) {
  switch ($section) {
    case 'admin/modules#description':
      return t('Allows one user role to bypass content moderation.');
  }
}

/**
* Implementation of hook_nodeapi()
*
* Set the moderation state of a node
*/
function special_nodeapi(&$node, $op, $teaser = NULL, $page = NULL) {
  global $user;

  switch ($op) {
    case 'submit':
                               // choose the name of the role here!
      if ($node->moderate  && in_array('myfriend', $user->roles)) { 
         if (!user_access('administer nodes')) { // Don't reset for admins
            $node->moderate = 0;
         }
      }
      break;
  }
}