Frum Hits It on the Head

How do you kill the monster you created? What if you can't? In the Terminator movies, it was man who created SkyNet which eventually became self-aware and launched the nukes on its own, creating the post-apocalyptic world where machines, not man ruled the earth. Ditto for the Matrix. So what will happen with Sarah Palin? How can the Republican Party kill her (killer her politically, not actually kill her. I feel I need to make that distinction so some Palinista doesn't find this blog and claim that I actually think the Republican Party will literally kill Sarah Palin) with the least amount of bloodshed? If you go for the jugular (again, figurative) and try to take her out vicious and quick, you risk alienating her most ardent supporters who make up most of the Republican base. If you take the long-view and try to bleed her over time, you run the risk of not finishing the job and letting her live to fight another day. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out. Either way: this battle will be a lot of fun to watch. As Frum says:

But in Palin’s case, the myth rings true. There really is a GOP party establishment. That establishment took up Palin as a useful tool in 2008, deployed Palin as an edged anti-Obama weapon in 2009 – and is now horrified to see that they may have set in motion a force possibly too powerful to halt when its time has ended. The story of the behind-the-scenes struggle to squelch Palin – and her ferocious determination not to be squelched – will be the big GOP-side story of the coming year.

His full piece here.