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Pete Wehner has a smart column today on Sarah Palin today entitled "The Damage Sarah Palin Could Do."
Responding to the charge leveled by her supporters that any of us who have criticized her are part of the inside-the-beltway ruling class, Wehner writes:
Some of us who have been publicly critical of Sarah Palin for some time now have also publicly praised figures like Paul Ryan (among others), which complicates the argument that Palin’s critics are faux conservatives. Indeed, many of us who have expressed concerns about her have done so precisely because of what we believe would happen to conservatism if Palin were its major spokesperson.
As Kimberly Strassel also points out today: "A March poll showed that 37% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents view her unfavorably, a number that far outpaced that of any other potential GOP candidate."
These 37% are not inside-the-beltway types but drawn from the voting populace across the country.
And surely they get their Palin not through some lamestream media outlet, but most likely through Fox News and many of the same web sites as Palin's supporters.
The point here is that Sarah Palin has landed somehow on a parallel track to everyone else in the field. To criticize her is, to those who support her, "proof" that you are a RINO, not a real conservative. Pawlenty's supporters don't criticize Romney's supporters for being unRepublican or closet liberals when they publicly criticize T-Paw. When Newt Gingrich used his first Meet the Press appearance as a 2012 contender to accuse Paul Ryan of right-wing social engineering, Ryan's supporters criticized Gingrich for being off-base in his argument, and even politically unwise. But no one said he was no longer a conservative or un-American.
It is by all means necessary for conservatives to call out those in their ranks who share their label but not their principles. But people with solid conservative credentials who question Palin's ability to win an election should be able to do so without having those credentials questioned.
Conservatives have long prided themselves on being deeply principled, but not doctrinaire. And we typically criticize the left for being exactly the reverse. When conservatives become doctrinaire and turn on each other, questioning their commitment to the cause - well, it's simply not very conservative.
I fear Palin's entrance into the primary would have the opposite effect of a Reagan: it would divide conservatives in a way that would be damaging to the cause we all love.
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