What will GOP do about Sarah?

NEW YORK — Despite its considerable gains in the midterm elections, the GOP has a problem looming in the margins named Sarah Palin. She who can rouse the base like none other is now she to whom respect must be paid. Like it or not.

Many within the so-called party establishment don't quite know what to do about Palin. She's adored by tea partyers, to whom she conveniently attached herself as soon as she sensed a shift in the air. A rogue like Palin isn't going to let a rogue movement fill a stadium or a desert without her.

She also had some luck with her midterm endorsements, at least in the U.S. House and a couple of state elections, notably South Carolina Gov.-elect Nikki Haley. Palin's Mama Grizzly shtick, which followed her pit bull-with-lipstick shtick, apparently was effective. She had a less-stellar record in the Senate, with only six of her 11 anointed ones winning.

Thus, Republican Rep. Spencer Bachus of Alabama recently had the audacity to assert what heretofore had been relegated to whispers behind closed doors: “Sarah Palin cost us control of the Senate.”

Bachus, who likely will replace Barney Frank as chair of the House Financial Services Committee, noted that Palin endorsed some Senate candidates who couldn't possibly win, such as Christine O'Donnell in Delaware.

Other notable lost seats in states where the establishment candidate might have won include Nevada, where Harry Reid defeated tea party pick Sharron Angle. Other failed races are equally familiar, but especially rich to Palin watchers is the apparent victory in Alaska of write-in incumbent Lisa Murkowski over Palin fave Joe Miller. Republicans didn't lose the seat to a Democrat, obviously, but the unlikely election of a write-in candidate over a Palin pick in her own home state is illustrative of Palin's vincibility.

Bachus isn't the first to point out the fatal flaw of tea party ambition, but he may be the highest-ranking member of Congress to confront the obvious. Or to tempt the fates. He is brave to speak foul of the princess party girl as he invites the considerable scorn of the new and improved GOP base.

Cutting government spending may be the central mantra of the tea party and, increasingly, of Palin. But the overlay of social and tea party conservatism is everywhere becoming more defined, and Palin is the intersection of these two ideological sectors. Her own life is a human diorama of social conservative principles, and she is now strategically developing the part of her profile that earned her ridicule as a vice presidential candidate.

Watching Palin drop foreign policy and economic nuggets into the twitterverse confirms that the real agenda for Palin is President Palin, and therein lies fresh terror for Republicans. She's too powerful to ignore, and too (fill-in-blank) to take seriously. She is in a word yet again whispered rather than uttered “dangerous.” Not only would Palin the presidential candidate drive away other Republican candidates, but she would most certainly lose a national election.

Thus, the GOP finds itself in a pickle: How to shed itself of this attractive nuisance? The answer, alas, is the stuff of all complicated relationships: Can't live with her, can't live without her.

$PHOTOCREDIT_ON$(c) 2010, Washington Post Writers Group$PHOTOCREDIT_OFF$