Aides to Senator John McCain and his allies in the media, seem to have decided that the time has come to throw out all the dirty laundry they have on Governor Sarah Palin.

Yesterday, some news outlets reported that, when Palin had to speak with McCain aides about the strategy to be used, she welcomed them into her hotelroom wearing a bathrobe only.

Of course, quickly putting on a bathrobe because someone knocks the door when you’re just taking a shower (or just done taking one), is perfectly normal. The aides and allies in the press undoubtedly tried to present Palin as some kind of whore or hillbilly, but everyone in their right mind would come to the conclusion that if you cannot handle a woman in a bathrobe you may have a serious sex-shortage.

Not only that, but word came out yesterday that Randy Scheunemann, a well known name, was fired by McCain’s campaign manager Rick Davis last week because he would be guilty of ’siding with’ Palin. According to the McCain campaign, Scheunemann was the source in the McCain campaign last week who defended Palin and blamed other McCain aides for most of the problems created in the last two weeks of the campaign, including wardrobegate.

Later it was added that Gov. Palin did not know what countries were members of NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, or that Africa is a continent not a country. These rumors are so strange, it would require Palin to be so thoroughly uninformed that even a Palin critic such as myself has a hard time swallowing the rumor.

Palin herself reported to the rumors, gossip and smears by saying she did not want to play that dirty game afterwards and pointing out that one of the main problems these days seem to be that many take politics personal.

She also criticized the media, for she understands that one of the major reasons for her damage image was the bias of the media. “I want to make sure that Americans understand that there is a little bit of disappointment in my heart about the world of journalism today,” Palin told Fox News.

“I don’t want any individual journalist to take it personally,” she went on to say, “but I have such great respect for the role of the media in our democracy, it is a cornerstone, it allows for checks and balances. But only where there is fairness and objectivity in the reporting.”

She said she wants to help improve the media, with the help of her foundation – newly founded – which aims at “restoring credibility” in the media.

The reports of infighting and smears aimed at Palin are all part of a normal scene after a defeat. Most are undoubtedly lies, others may be true, again others may be exaggerations. However, the McCain aides who now leak all this information – real or made up – are taking a tremendous risk.

Whether they are happy with it or not, the conservative base loved and still loves Sarah Palin. They stuck with her after many weeks, two months even, of attacks in the media. The ‘leaks’ won’t cause them to change their mind. Rather, it may hurt those who leak this information and John McCain himself, for conservative bloggers have already declared war on the leakers.

The conservative blog Red State, for instance, announced the launch of a new project called “Operation Leper.” The goal of this operation is to identify the leakers, to “constantly remind the base about these people, monitor who they are working for, and, when 2012 rolls around, see which candidates hire them. Naturally then, you’ll see us go to war against those candidates.”

“It is,” the blog’s Erick Erickson goes on to write, “our expressed intention to make these few people political lepers.” Another conservative blogger, Patterico, ads: “The people responsible should be rooted out and should never be allowed to work for a campaign again.”

The war in the Republican Party will continue in the coming days. Fox News reported it would report the smears, leaks, etc. in the coming days. All smears will undoubtedly be aimed at Palin.

Those doing the leaking, however, should keep in mind that Palin is a hero to the base, which is willing to protect her against everyone, including those who worked for a badly mishandled campaign resulting in Republicans losing the White House. The dirt on Palin may, in the end, cost the leakers and the people they work for more than anyone else.

Rumor has it, that some of these staffers may be working for Governor Mitt Romney or at least hope he will run in 2012. That could be true. However, this is highly unlikely considering that the leaks are coming from McCain aides, with lots of personal knowledge about Palin and about how the campaign was handled. It is unlikely that aides to Romney heard about these rumors. Instead, it seems likely that these are Republican operatives taking revenge on Palin, trying to scapegoat her, in order to safe their career.