Count me underwhelmed by Sarah Palin, or, to be specific, the person Sarah Palin has become. Or, to be even more specific, the person Sarah Palin became to be interviewed on Oprah about her book yesterday morning.

When I  received this assignment, I thought it would be easy to take a clear position on the issue of whether I believed the Stupak Amendment to the House health care bill was worthwhile or even necessary. As I thought further, it became less clear to me, as someone who believes in the foundations of small government and individual liberty upon which this country was built, and given the reality of the time in which we live, it became more difficult for me to make a definitive statement.

Okay, that's an incendiary headline, isn't it? I'm not one to enter the circular firing squad on Republicans (okay, so yes, I am, but not fresh-out-of-the-box governors who are serving as a bellweather for the Democratic agenda's chances in 2010), but there are certain issues on which I feel, as a libertarian feminist, on which I have to seek clarification, the question of whether a certain candidate actively works against the interest of women being one of them.

Right now, I'm watching Democrats hemorrhage Independents in key races, most notably in Virginia. Now, normally, I'd be making conciliatory gestures, convincing myself that I have to focus on 2010, and that the races that mattered haven't happened yet. In fact, they are so far down the road, that its impossible to tell whether tonight will have any impact on them, or whether we've spent every last shred of capital we have nabbing a few races. I'll leave the election analysis to someone else, though. I'm concerned with implications.

Its fairly obvious that there's a massive change brewing in the depths of the GOP. Although the Tea Partiers and the "grassroots" have made it clear that Obama is their primary enemy, there's another front that's come to light in this war; the mainstream conservatives are now taking on the tough job of purging their party of big-government bureaucrats from within. Nowhere is that more evident than the battle taking place in NY-23.