Courtesy of Jim Treacher, your fun fact of the day. Consider it a gloss on The One’s befuddlement as to why McCain would think to hold him and his campaign responsible for the more obnoxious anti-Palin excrescences of the left. I was going to bring up the Townhouse thing but Ace already beat me to that, so by way of value added I’ll simply remind you that the nutroots have always had a cozier relationship with their party leadership than the righty blogosphere has, right down to tools like Harry Reid and Dick Durbin pandering at the same site chiefly responsible for spreading the “Bristol is Trig’s real mom” smear.

The chief argument against Jim’s insinuation? There’s simply too much crap about Palin of too many stripes floating around to suggest a guiding hand. See, e.g., FactCheck.org’s new post debunking seriatim some of the choicer smears, with a promise of more to come once they rest and regroup. Such is the volume of dirt that they can’t scrub it all at one sitting. Exit question: Why would Axelrod need to stir the pot? Does anyone doubt that the forces of Progress are ready, willing, and able to do this all on their own?