In “Cabaret” Liza Minelli plays down-on-her-luck Sally. Plucky, determined, forthright and ultimately a loser sent packing all alone.

It’s hard not to imagine Sarah Palin humming “Maybe This Time” on her flight back to Alaska. The night of the long knives is underway. Something’s flowing and it sure ain’t praise:

• Alaskan “hillbillies” is how a McCain staffer described her family.
• Palin shopped the hardest - expected to buy a few outfits it morphed into “Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast”.
• Fox News reporter David Cameron says Palin didn’t know Africa was a continent - she thought it was a country. (Fair enough because Australia is a country - and a continent.)
• She arrived in Phoenix with a concession speech in hand - and was surprised McCain didn’t expect her to speak on the night.

What do you do when you’re cornered and it’s coming at you from all angles?

Palin has strengths including mass public appeal. She needs to return to Alaska and govern, then appoint herself as Stevens’ replacement (Senator indicted for felonies but not sentenced yet may narrowly win his Senate re-election; once a convicted felon he cannot serve and Alaska’s governor Palin gets to name his replacement). She need to forge her reputation in the Senate and help rebuild the Republican Party.

Today’s insults and barbs do not merit responses. It’s time to lie low and re-emerge stronger, cleaner and smarter.

Then perhaps she and her fellow Republicans can sing another “Cabaret” classic - “Tomorrow belongs to me.”