The GOP can't be led by Sarah Palin. But can it live without her?

By Kathleen Parker
WashPost
Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Despite its considerable gains in the midterm elections, the GOP has a problem looming in the margins named Sarah Palin.

She who can rouse the base like none other is now She to Whom Respect Must Be Paid. Like it or not.

Many within the so-called party establishment don't quite know what to do about Palin. She's adored by Tea Partyers, to whom she conveniently attached herself as soon as she sensed a shift in the air. A rogue like Palin isn't going to let a rogue movement fill a stadium - or a desert - without her.

She also had some luck with her gambles on midterm endorsements, at least in the U.S. House and a couple of state elections, notably South Carolina Gov.-elect Nikki Haley. Palin's Mama Grizzly shtick, which followed her pit bull-with-lipstick shtick, apparently was effective. She had a less-stellar record in the Senate, with only six of her 11 anointed ones winning.

(More here.)