The Washington Post examines Sarah Palin under fire.

A couple of weeks before the Alaska legislature began this year's session, a bipartisan group of state senators on a retreat a few hours from here invited Gov. Sarah Palin to join them. Accompanied by a retinue of advisers, she took a seat at one end of a conference table and listened passively as Gary Stevens, the president of the Alaska Senate, a former college history professor and a low-key Republican with a reputation for congeniality, expressed delight at her presence.

Would the governor, a smiling Stevens asked, like to share some of her plans and proposals for the coming legislative session?

Palin looked around the room and paused, according to several senators present. "I feel like you guys are always trying to put me on the spot," she said finally, as the room became silent.

Clearly another one of those "gotcha" questions where somebody wants her to talk about doing her job. How dare they!

Nearly every move that Palin makes or does not make, acknowledges Joe Balash, one of her closest aides, is analyzed through a new political prism, scrutinized for its effect on a possible 2012 presidential candidacy. "There's nothing we can do to stop it," he said. "People wonder why she's doing something or not doing something."

The result of all this scrutiny and second-guessing, says one Republican ally, is that "the governor has been feeling beaten up."

Do you know why she feels "beaten up"? Because we have been beating her up.

I would feel badly about it but I can't. Sarah Palin left Alaska to help trash the man who is now our country's greatest hope. And to do it she engaged in the most despicable kinds of character assassination, and blatantly lying, that I have ever seen.

And then she gets exposed by the national media (since our local media is too lazy or stupid to do their jobs) as completely unfit to be Governor of our state, and quite possibly was not even fit to be the mayor of Wasilla.

Keeping her from doing anymore damage to our state or our country is job one for most progressive Alaska bloggers.

Which also means I must point out the fallacy of this statement.

Despite the distractions and speculation over Palin's future, her advisers say she is singularly focused on her work as governor, pointing out that of the seven days she has spent outside Alaska since the election, six have been spent on official business for the state, including a January weekend in Washington.

Somebody will have to carefully explain to me how Palin's trip to help the campaign of Saxby Chambliss in Georgia was of any help whatsoever to Alaska. And as for the Alfalfa Club dinner, well simply adding a couple of visits to some Congressmen or Senators to cover for her real purpose in making the trip is simply not going to fly with those of us who have noticed this pattern before. (My theory about the reason behind this trip is that she was trying desperately to have herself photographed with President Obama.)

Just recently Palin attended a political function in Fairbanks to provide cover for her trip to meet the First Dude at the end of this year's Iron Dog snowmachine race. Ooooh tricky!

But if Governor Palin believes she is still fooling people with these obfuscations she is sadly mistaken. Not even her fellow Republicans in Alaska seem to be buying her bullshit.

Palin's greatest problems in Alaska, as in the rest of the country, seem to be with her fellow Republicans. "What did I say about her during the campaign when somebody asked me if she was qualified?" asked state Rep. John Harris, taking a moment to ponder his own question, smiling. "Oh, I said something like 'She's old enough and a registered voter.' " Another smile.

A former speaker of the state House, Harris believes that Palin and her team need to improve relationships with legislators.

"A lot of people around here see it as the Eva Peron syndrome -- Sarah being Evita," said Larry Persily, a top aide to Mike Hawker (R), co-chairman of the state House's Finance Committee.

And one of these same Republicans is the source for probably the best advice for Sarah Palin.

....said one prominent GOP strategist who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "But the campaign also demonstrated that there is a lack of gravity to her that has hurt. She needs to mitigate her weaknesses. She needs to prepare more, know more. She should try to disappear for a while and be an indisputably effective governor."

Will she take this advice? What are you kidding?