With Sarah Palin’s understandable announcement that she is resigning as Governor of Alaska, predictable and outright cruel invective oozed out of the mouths of the loathing left. Why do so many liberals have such an unhinged hatred of this woman? Why do so many alleged feminists and female members of the mainstream media openly and gleefully despise Palin?

As I have said elsewhere, for the last ten months, like the regularity of the Sun rising or setting, Maureen Dowd of The New York Times relentlessly hurled insults at Palin, this past Sunday being no exception. Why? If -- as Dowd and other attackers on the left maintain -- Palin is inconsequential, ignorant, untalented and part of the unwashed masses, why not just let her recede into history? Why the constant attacks?

As to why Vanity Fair and other liberal outlets go after her, the answer is quite simple: money. With uncounted thousands from the left who equally hate Palin, Vanity Fair and the other media outlets understand -- especially in a bad economy with declining circulation -- that there is gold to be mined from the fragile minds of those who hate. For them, this is the story that keeps giving. And as long as the uncounted haters from the left continue to froth at the mouth at the very mention of Palin, Vanity Fair, Keith Olbermann and others will feed the beast for ratings and revenue.

Fine. I get that. But why Dowd and the feminists? With regard to The New York Times columnist, I asked a female friend of mine who happens to be a psychologist, what might prompt the anger? She mentioned a host of possibilities, but settled on one theory. That being that Dowd "may be threatened or envious of Palin...or both. As an aging but still attractive woman, Dowd may resent Palin's good looks. Further, as a single woman of a certain age, she may be envious that Palin has a husband, a family and has carved out an accomplished political career."

While not a fan of psycho-babble, it does seem to be a plausible explanation.

With regard to why Todd Purdum of Vanity Fair, David Letterman, and other liberal males continually go after Palin, the answer might be as easy as they secretly lust after her while also seeing her as the "girlfriend of the quarterback" they could never get in high school. Seriously, look at the "men" who belittle Palin on a regular basis. For the most part, they fit the description of "the pencil-neck geek" from high school. Are they now trying to make Palin pay for their long-ago inadequacies? Is that why Letterman imagines her now as a "Slutty Flight Attendant?" Because she is his fantasy and rather than admit it, he strikes out at her?

As Governor Palin leaves the elected stage…for now…she appears to be doing so for entirely logical reasons. For almost a year, democrats -- local and national -- have gone after her with a vengeance with their favorite mode of attack being to file false ethics charges against her. To date (as Alaska law mandates) she has had to spend over $500,000 of her own money defending herself against these trumped-up charges. How easy it is for others not in her shoes to say “…the Governor has decided to abandon the State and her constituents before her term has concluded," when that Governor could be facing even more false ethics charges that could financially cripple her family.

How easy for those not in the arena to attack her decision to step down when they suffer zero consequences either way. Palin (along with her children and grandchild) has been vilified and smeared like no elected official in modern political history simply because she was a conservative woman on a national ticket whose traditional values petrified the liberal media and intelligentsia. The repugnant Vanity Fair article proving that the mainstream media offensive against her is still in full bore with no sign of abatement.

Other than liberal male nerds and envious spinsters, who says Sarah Palin is not allowed to take a break, catch her breath, protect her family from remorseless and revolting attacks, and make the money needed to not only pay off her legal bills, but get far enough ahead so as to have the financial freedom to choose her next path to walk? National or otherwise.

As she starts on that next path, one can only hope that she does not go far. If ever there was a time our nation needed someone with her gifts and beliefs, it is now.