In Haiti, reporting from hell

"It's like being a spokesmodel for conservatism.

"Nevertheless, given Palin's history of 'going rogue' by quitting pretty good gigs that turned onerous on her, she might still spontaneously combust in the cable channel's face. She could back out of the contract as she has so many speaking engagements. She could have more Katie Couric moments on the air, in which her utter inability to recognize her own limitations makes her feel ambushed and paranoid. Her close mentors, like Fox's Greta Van Susteren, could one day grow as frustrated with her as has Steve Schmidt, the top McCain consultant who helped choose her as the running mate and now trades accusations with her over who's the bigger liar."

Commentary's Jennifer Rubin unloads on Schmidt, asking "why a political operative would commit career suicide. The subject is Steve Schmidt, who seems to be willing to trade any chance to work on a future presidential campaign (perhaps any prominent GOP campaign) for the opportunity to bash the former vice-presidential candidate whom he helped select. He's been on a tear, even before the campaign ended, to berate and insult Sarah Palin. His behavior is all the stranger because she, of course, happens to be, while a lightning rod outside the party, quite popular within it. This makes his attack on her the equivalent of a 'Don't Hire Me!' sign. And then there's the crassness, the disloyalty, and the sheer lowness of savaging someone with whom you served as a campaign adviser. So why do it?. . . .

"If we believe Schmidt that Palin was such a horrible choice, then he's a horrible campaign strategist and should not have aided and abetted John McCain in selecting her."

Jonathan Chait, in turn, takes on Rubin in the New Republic:

"Maybe because he thinks Palin is dangerously unqualified for the presidency? Given that his disclosures obviously run contrary to his professional interest, we might entertain the possibility that he's acting out of conviction.

"This is an interesting way for Rubin to deal with information that subverts her argument. She obviously wants to attack the motive of the source rather than address the substance of his charge, which she continues to ignore. But his interests runs in the precise opposite direction of his action. So she's reduced to railing against him for being irrational."

I've always found Schmidt to be a straight shooter; I can remember him yelling at me at the Republican convention about how horribly unfair the press was being to Palin. Why shouldn't he speak out now if he has the guts to do it on the record?

Conan's conundrum

TMZ says it's a done deal; Leno's getting back an hour-long "Tonight Show" and Conan is outta there. We shall see.

The debate over whether NBC is shafting Conan O'Brien has tended to focus on his poor ratings versus the promises he received from the network. But what about his performance these past seven months?

At the Daily Beast, Bryan Curtis says:

"As a member of the coveted 18-to-49-year-old demographic, let me say that I thought Conan O'Brien's Tonight Show stunk. I like Conan -- I really do. I feel bad that he's become the latest corpse in Jeff Zucker's NBC funeral parlor. But in all the odes to Conan's martyrdom, no one actually seems to be defending his seven-month-old Tonight Show. That's because the show, even for us Cocophiles, wasn't funny. . . .