Is the GOP turning on Sarah Palin? Asked on CNN this weekend about the Alaska governor's inclusion in Time magazine's list of 100 Most Influential People, potential 2012 rival Mitt Romney-who has almost certainly never received beneficial press coverage regarding his own good looks-remarked, "[W]as that the issue on the most beautiful people or the most influential people? I'm not sure. If it's the most beautiful, I understand. We're not real cute."

Well, har har. Politico says the whole thing "reflects the deep unease among many in the GOP establishment about the continued high-profile of Limbaugh and especially Palin. There is almost a sense of exasperation among many party elites over the media coverage the two polarizing figures get – attention which, in Palin's case, is widely seen as a product largely of her good looks and tabloid-fodder family troubles." And, you know, could be! Or it could be that the GOP establishment is terrified that not only will Palin suck up all the press oxygen to which they feel entitled, but, by being presented along with Limbaugh as the face of the party, she will continue to damage coordinated attempts to disguise the fact that her brand of anti-intellectual intolerance and knee-jerk fealty to discredited conservative ideas is exactly what the remaining rump of Republicans think is the One True Way To Righteousness.

As for Palin, she spent the weekend participating in a March of Dimes walk with her children and signing an important bill which will allow parents of stillborns to request birth certificates.