You have to admire the fighting spirit:

“It’s time they met one Republican woman who won’t quit on Alaska.”

–Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), in her announcement of a write-in bid, attacking Sarah Palin.

“It’s a futile effort on her part, it really is.”

— Sarah Palin, quoted by CNN, on Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s (R-AK) effort to mount an independent write-in campaign for U.S. Senate.

It would be interesting to do a private poll of sitting Republican senators to see how many of them would rather work with Lisa Murkowski than Palin’s pet, Joe Miller. For that matter, I’d like to see how many of them would rather work with Scott McAdams than Joe Miller. For all the talk about small government and constitutional principles, most senators, regardless of party, don’t care too much for colleagues who want to interfere with their home projects. A little anti-pork rhetoric never hurt anyone, but a bunch of ragtag insurgents who actually take that shit seriously? They’ll be about as welcome as a case of the crabs. It’s fine to talk about closing down the Department of Education and banning abortion even in cases of rape or incest, but actually doing it? That’s political suicide.

Bob Shrum provides some conventional wisdom:

Shrunken and narrowed, the GOP is increasingly dominated by a far-right rump. Republicans are now riding high on the tide of economic discontent. But they are even less popular than the Democrats—and far less popular than Obama — according to The New York Times/CBS poll. Republican leaders miscalculated their way into a place where their own influence has waned: They’ll lose seats in 2010 that they could have won, and they’ve imperiled the customary route to their presidential nomination, strengthening Barack Obama’s prospects for re-election.

I think Shrum’s probably right about that, but I am still concerned. Despite the headline, it’s clear that Peggy Noonan is concerned, too.

A movement like this can help a nation by acting as a corrective, or it can descend into a corrosive populism that celebrates unknowingness as authenticity, that confuses showiness with seriousness and vulgarity with true conviction. Parts could become swept by a desire just to tear down, to destroy…

…One difference so far between the tea party and the great wave of conservatives that elected Ronald Reagan in 1980 is the latter was a true coalition—not only North and South, East and West but right-wingers, intellectuals who were former leftists, and former Democrats. When they won presidential landslides in 1980, ’84 and ’88, they brought the center with them. That in the end is how you win. Will the center join arms and work with the tea party? That’s a great question of 2012.

Yes, it is the great question. If, as David Brooks asserts, there is no backlash against the Tea Party, then we’re in big trouble and we’ll see a lot of tearing down and destruction. If history rhymes, Shrum’s prediction will come true. But, what if history doesn’t rhyme this time?

They warn people against playing with fire for a reason. It’s all very amusing to watch the cat-fight between Sarah Palin and Lisa Murkowski, but notice who appears to be losing.