Just further proof that the teabaggers have taken over the GOP:

Former Colorado lieutenant governor Jane Norton, one of the five candidates competing in the Republican primary for the state's 2010 Senate race, is distinguishing herself with her full-hearted embrace of the tea party crowd.

Appearing at a recent coffee-shop event with Colorado voters, Norton sat silently while a female attendee declared twice that President Barack Obama is a Muslim and while a male attendee insisted that the president -- who he deemed "an idiot" -- wanted to let babies die on the side of the road "with the garbage."

"Well as you can tell there is a lot of passion around what is happening in our own country," Norton responded to the crowd, rather than correcting either individual. "And how we can channel that into positive constructive ways that will get our vote out it is going to be absolutely critical."

Also at the event, Norton praised the "tea-party movement and the 9/12 groups" for pushing a right-wing populist, anti-Washington agenda. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee highlighted that exchange [above] in a video it sent to reporters on Monday.

Norton's anti-Washington rhetoric belies her already cozy relationship with DC lobbyists. However, she's trying to ameliorate those potentially profitable (but abhorrent to the teabaggin' crowd) contacts by publicly advocating some whackaloon stances designed to appeal to the quasi-libertarian streak, like abolishing the Department of Education. I guess she's counting on keeping the voting populace stupid for a continual base of supporters.