EVEN THE REPUBLICAN SENATOR WHO GETS IT DOESN'T COMPLETELY GET IT

A lot of people are amused right now by this Politico storu:

GOP senator: We haven't learned

The Republican U.S. senator sits glumly across the restaurant table.

"I don't think we have learned much from the election in terms of what people want to see," he says. "We have the same gridlock."

By the "same gridlock," he means that party hard-liners, both Democrats and Republicans, will remain in control of the machinery of Congress. And that means more of the same. It means more politics as usual -- especially in his party.

"We need someone who speaks from the center," he says. "Sarah Palin is not the voice of our party." ...

The anonymous senator talks about Republicans losing Hispanics, after having lost African-Americans. The senator thinks the current GOP message is dated and unappealing ("What did Republicans want? Tax cuts for the rich! And small government").

But, er, with regard to Sarah Palin, this senator really doesn't get it:

"Sarah Palin seems to have been anointed by the media...."

The hell she has. Her anointment has, to some extent, been ratified by the media, but her anointment was by your party's base, Senator. Your hardcore voters think she's the bee's knees. They send death threats to columnists, even card-carrying conservatives (especially card-carrying conservatives), who question Palin's brilliance and status as not only a rising Republican star, but the one person in America most suited to be the next president of the United States.

If the Republican Party is controlled by "hard-liners," it's because that's what the GOP base wants. The worshipful reaction to Palin throughout the fall is just proof of that. The GOP's problems aren't just in leadership -- they run all the way to the grassroots.