Smiling theocratic backbiter Mike Huckabee says Palin’s resignation doesn’t make sense.

Karl Rove is also less than enthusiastic.

Part of her explanation for resigning — that she was dogged by critics who cost her state millions in legal fees — will be a liability for her if she seeks the White House, Huckabee said.

“Well, if that had been the case for me, I’d have quit about my first month, because I was a Republican governor in a state where 89 percent of my legislature were Democrats,” Huckabee said. “Been there, done that.”

If she’s looking to be a national political figure, it’s not going to get easier, Huckabee said.

Besides, Rove said, Palin will not be able to escape the media’s attention.

“If she thinks somehow that she’s going to be able to protect her family against the kind of things that she’s suffered over the last couple of months, from David Letterman and others, and seek a role of leadership for effective change for our country, as she said in her speech, she’s not going to be able to do it,” Rove said.

Palin recently led a public spat with “Late Show” host Letterman over a joke he made about one of her daughters.

“It is not clear what her strategy here is by exiting the governorship 2 1/2 years through the term and putting herself on the national stage that she may not yet be prepared to operate in,” Rove said.