Via Mediaite, yet another clip of 2012 pot-stirring awesomeness from Laura Ingraham. First she had Palin on and pressed her not only on what Barbara Bush said but on Chris Christie’s dig at her on Leno. Then Huckabee came on and she started pushing his buttons about being looked down upon by the squishy egghead city slickers who don’t know the Real America the way he does. Now here’s Rove being nudged to defend the Bushes from the Huck/Palin populist onslaught. She might as well start calling these segments, “You Gonna Take That?” I can’t wait to see what she has planned for Mitt. Maybe she’ll surprise him by having Huck phone in while he’s on the air to call him a RINO plutocrat. Let the primary knife fights begin!

Incidentally, this isn’t the first time recently that Rove’s urged Sarahcuda and her supporters to grow a thicker skin about criticism. Whether he means that as earnest advice to her base or rather to stoke the sort of complaints aired here by Ace among conservatives outside her base, I leave for you to judge. Exit question: Is what he says near the end of the clip about having little influence over the primary really true? It’s certainly true that Beltway Republicans can’t keep anyone from running, but they can pull an awful lot of strings for a favored candidate in terms of raising money and generating media coverage. That was my point about Pence and name recognition last night. Voters will pick the nominee, but well connected party leaders can do an awful lot to shape the options from which they’ll do the pickin’.