"She's lost confidence in most of the people on the plane," said a senior Republican who speaks to Palin, referring to her campaign jet. He said Palin had begun to "go rogue" in some of her public pronouncements and decisions.
"I think she'd like to go more rogue," he said.
As soon as I read that I thought, whoa, that explains the revelations about a $150,000 clothing allowance and $900 spray-on tan. Someone from inside the McCain campaign is throwing this woman under the bus. Looks like I may be on to something:
"These people are going to try and shred her after the campaign to divert blame from themselves," a McCain insider said, referring to McCain's chief strategist, Steve Schmidt, and to Nicolle Wallace, a former Bush aide who has taken a lead role in Palin's campaign. Palin's partisans blame Wallace, in particular, for Palin's avoiding of the media for days and then giving a high-stakes interview to CBS News' Katie Couric, the sometimes painful content of which the campaign allowed to be parceled out over a week.
"A number of Gov. Palin's staff have not had her best interests at heart, and they have not had the campaign's best interests at heart," the McCain insider fumed, noting that Wallace left an executive job at CBS to join the campaign.
I certainly did not know that.
All of this begs the question: when are we going to see headlines about "Republicans in disarray!!!!" like we did during the Democratic primary? Just wondering.
I don't think we've seen the last of Sarah Palin. I think she appeals to a certain wing of the conservative movement that is worried its days in the sun are over and is looking for a new star to rally around. Personally, I think that wing is nutso and needs to let the grownups be in charge for a while, but what do I know.
(I cannot tell a lie: the headline is courtesy of A. Morphous at Eschaton comments ....)
