Today's Anti-Palin Word: 'Nincompoop'

Sarah Palin thinks the GOP establishment is out to get her, and it sure feels like the knives are out. There's Rove, of course, and then Bush (or at least a source claiming to speak for him), and now two former presidential speechwriters, Michael Gerson and Peggy Noonan, the latter of whom busts out the word "nincompoop" to describe her:

• Gerson: She's "increasingly tolerant of disturbing extremism" and doesn't seem to care about the consequences for the GOP. Her endorsement of Tom Tancredo "raises the question of whether Palin has any standards for her support other than anti-government rhetoric," he writes in the Washington Post. "Either as a power broker or a candidate in the 2012 election, Palin's increasingly erratic political judgment should raise Republican concerns."

• Noonan: In a Wall Street Journal column devoted mostly to bashing Obama—he's a "human depression" that Democrats would be wise to abandon, she argues—Noonan rips Palin for dissing Reagan (for whom she wrote speeches) as an "actor." She rises to his defense: "The point is not 'He was a great man and you are a nincompoop,' though that is true." Reagan "brought his fully mature, fully seasoned self into politics with him," she writes. He had accomplished great things before becoming president. His "career is a guide, not only for the tea party but for all in politics."

(More Sarah Palin stories.)