A Stampede of "RINOs"

It's going to be difficult to denounce conservative columnist Mona Charen as a another cocktail circuit "RINO" (and why do these ideological enforcers hate cocktails?), but judging by the reader comments on her latest Townhall.com column, in which she urges Sarah Palin not to run for president, she too has been exposed as a phony conservative. Sample comment: "[Palin] has more QUALIOFICATIONS than obama ever did." And the key graf:

After the 2008 campaign revealed her weaknesses on substance, Palin was advised by those who admire her natural gifts to bone up on policy and devote herself to governing Alaska successfully. Instead, she quit her job as governor after two and a half years, published a book (another is due next week), and seemed to chase money and empty celebrity. Now, rather than being able to highlight the accomplishments of Sarah Palin's Alaska, we get "Sarah Palin's Alaska," another cheesy entrant in the reality show genre. She'd so much rather be out dog sledding than in some "dull political office," she tells the audience. File that.

Now that she is flirting with a 2012 run, expect more conservative writers and strategists to follow the lead of Karl Rove and publically express reservations about a Palin candidacy. Stay tuned.