AILES JUST CAN'T QUIT PALIN

Gabriel Sherman's recent New York magazine cover story on Roger Ailes famously including this quote about Ailes from an unnamed GOP source:

"...He thinks Palin is an idiot. He thinks she's stupid. He helped boost her up. People like Sarah Palin haven't elevated the conservative movement."

Maybe, that's so, but apparently nobody's told the folks at his message-board affiliate, Fox Nation. Here's the current FN banner headline:

Last night, this Palin story topped the FN page. And elsewhere today, lipstick is slathered on a pig:

"Rave reviews"? Yeah -- from Human Events and the Daily Caller. But even on the right the praise isn't universal: Kyle Smith of the New York Post -- Fox's corporate cousin -- hates it.

... its tone is an excruciating combination of bombast and whining, it’s so outlandishly partisan that it makes Richard Nixon look like Abraham Lincoln and its febrile rush of images -- not excluding earthquakes, car wrecks, volcanic eruption and attacking Rottweilers -- reminded me of the brainwash movie Alex is forced to sit through in "A Clockwork Orange." Except no one came along to refresh my pupils with eyedrops.

I'd sooner have watched a Michael Moore movie.

Any Michael Moore movie.

Even "Canadian Bacon."

Ouch.

So why isn't Ailes joining the pile-on? At the very least, I think he sees the chance to make some money off Palin again. Her inability to master the delivery of even basic GOP talking points means she hasn't been much good for grabbing eyeballs at Fox -- but what she's doing now might change that, at least temporarily. And maybe Ailes just hates us more than he resents Palin for not being a moneymaker; we're critical of her publicity blitz right now, so he's back on her side.

In any case, he clearly isn't quitting her just yet.