Wingpurgisnacht

I'm impressed with how quickly Palin is getting chucked under the Trash Talk Express. This must be some kind of record.

While publicly supporting Palin, McCain's top advisers privately fumed at what they regarded as her outrageous profligacy. One senior aide said that Nicolle Wallace had told Palin to buy three suits for the convention and hire a stylist. But instead, the vice presidential nominee began buying for herself and her family—clothes and accessories from top stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus. According to two knowledgeable sources, a vast majority of the clothes were bought by a wealthy donor, who was shocked when he got the bill. Palin also used low-level staffers to buy some of the clothes on their credit cards. The McCain campaign found out last week when the aides sought reimbursement. One aide estimated that she spent "tens of thousands" more than the reported $150,000, and that $20,000 to $40,000 went to buy clothes for her husband. Some articles of clothing have apparently been lost. An angry aide characterized the shopping spree as "Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast," and said the truth will eventually come out when the Republican Party audits its books.

Of course Palin is denying everything, and protesting the use of anonymous sources that she can't directly respond to. She's right about that -- it's pretty chickenshit for these people to lob their scuds from the shadows. But they're also more likely than not to be telling the truth, and Palin's increasingly eager protests practically affirm that. Either way, like the article says, they audit the books -- somebody's full of shit, and it won't be long before we know who.

But the McCain people have fallen all over themselves to portray -- through Faux News, no less -- Palin as an even dumber snow bunny than previously thought. As always, cui bono? Is it a retributive move by Johnny Mac himself, payback for Palin's increasingly ambitious behavior in the final weeks of a doomed campaign? Is it a preventive purge of the yahoo wing by the money wing of the party? Or is it just the usual infighting among losers? Why not all of the above?

Already the countless post-mortems have enumerated most of the usual permutations on why Obama won and why McCain lost. But maybe it's simpler than they think. Maybe Obama won because he spent way more than McCain, and was also smart enough not to let Bob Shrum within a mile of the campaign. And maybe McCain lost because his campaign was practically designed to lose -- erratic, dysfunctional, no discernible message affirming the ticket and platform, no intelligible reason to choose a dimwit like Palin for a running mate, except to excite the vaunted base.

Ah yes, the base, the noble base. People who are actually motivated and empowered by being talked to like they're six years old, with cartoon characters like Bob the Builder and Handy Manny and all that. No policy, no facts or information, no goals or aspirations. Just the pretense of validation in an amazingly dumbed-down pablum. Well, there ya go, base people. Once your gal ceased to be useful and in fact became troublesome, they couldn't wait to tear her down. Gee, it's as if they were using her -- and, in turn, you and your fellow would-be unlicensed plumbers. Hilarious. As Chris Hitchens once said, and I never tire of repeating, some people never learn, but some people don't intend to.

So let the cries for orc blood ring loud and far, let Operation Moral Leper strike fear in the hearts of Beltway party wonks who think they're scraping off their loafers en route to the next gig. Let the usual marks assume their favorite positions, and ready themselves to be taken by the next snake-oil salesman, the next empty shill.

Hell, they can even have that rat Lieberman while they're at it. Reid sure as hell owes him no negotiation whatsoever. That would be unacceptable.