Mark Kirk’s very public message to Sarah Palin, asking for an endorsement in his bid for Illinois’s Senate seat in 2010, doesn’t ipso facto mean that he thinks he would lose a primary to a conservative challenger without her seal of approval. But he knows that her thumbs-up could cut off any serious primary rival at the knees.

So he’ll kiss the ring or anything else he has to kiss to avoid a money, energy, and time-consuming GOP primary fight. Is she King-Maker? Not quite; but she’s Primary-Nullifier.