Pipe dream

Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank is declaring February a Palin-free month. "Sarah Palin's name will not cross my lips - or my keyboard - for the entire month of February," he pledged today.

Milbank writes:

Palin clearly isn't going away: "I am not going to sit down. I'm not going to shut up," she told Hannity on Monday. But if we treat her a little less like a major political figure and a little more like Ann Coulter - a calculating individual who says shocking things to attract media attention - it won't matter. Sure, we might lose some Web traffic or TV ratings, but we might also gain something. Remember the "Seinfeld" episode where George Costanza, by giving up sex, suddenly frees up brain power to learn Portuguese and Euclidean geometry, to teach Derek Jeter the physics of batting, to become a "Jeopardy" whiz and to solve a Rubik's cube? If we stop obsessing over Palin, we might suddenly become experts in the federal budget or Medicare reimbursement rates.

Could the media really reduce Palin to the statue of Snooki in terms of its coverage? Don't hold your breath.