Why Steve Schmidt's Gunning for Sarah Palin

Steve Schmidt has taken post-campaign sour grapes to new heights with his public assault on Sarah Palin on 60 Minutes, reports Politico. What drove him to it? That depends on who you ask, Politico reports. One Palin ally theorizes that Schmidt, damaged in political circles after the inept McCain campaign, wants to launch a media career. “And there is no easier way to do that then by being a Republican who is willing to bash other Republicans.”

But Schmidt allies say Palin brought out the knives in her book Going Rogue, which depicts him as a dour control freak and blames him for many mistakes. Particularly stinging were some personal attacks: “As he lectured, I took in his rotund physique and noted that he used nicotine to keep his own cognitive connections humming along,” she wrote. After that, it was war. (More Steve Schmidt stories.)