Hee hee hee, I just love it when teabaggers turn on each other, don't you? The Mudflats blog -- covering Alaskan politics -- have buried at the end of an article on Palin's presidential aspirations an item showing that tea bagger Republican senatorial candidate Joe Miller may have invoked the wrath of Palin in his refusal to go quid pro quo for Palin's endorsement:
On September 19, [Joe Miller] appeared on Fox News Sunday with [Chris Wallace] who addressed the rumor of a Palin presidential run, and asked Miller if he thought Sarah Palin was qualified to be President.
Miller’s non-committal response that there were “a number of great candidates out there” for the job fell far short of a Palin endorsement, and seems to have roused the ire of Todd Palin who launched an angry email blasting Miller on behalf of his wife. Palin sent the email on the morning of the Cavuto interview to Tim Crawford, Joe Miller and the Palins’ personal attorney, Thomas Van Flein (who also serves as Miller’s attorney.) In the email, Todd Palin instructs SarahPAC treasurer Tim Crawford to “Hold off on any letter for Joe. Sarah put her ass on the line for Joe and yet he can’t answer a simple question “is Sarah Palin Qualified to be President”. I DON’T KNOW IF SHE IS.”
Palin had previously given her support to Miller’s fundraising efforts. The day after appearing with Miller at a Conservative Patriots Group rally in Wasilla on September 11, Palin had written a Facebook post urging her more than 2 million Facebook friends to financially support Miller’s “money bomb.” As Todd Palin indicated, Sarah Palin’s endorsement of Miller was politically risky, with failure meaning that her backing was no longer even enough to assure support for a Republican candidate in her home state. And if Miller, with her help, actually succeeded in toppling the incumbent, the way would be paved for Mayor Scott McAdams of Sitka, the moderate Democratic candidate who would appeal to the Independents necessary to win any Alaska seat. At that time, no one anticipated that incumbent Republican Lisa Murkowski, after suffering a stinging defeat to Miller in the primary, would re-enter the race, launching a risky write-in campaign with little statistical chance of success.
In the email Todd Palin went on to ask, “Joe, please explain how this endorsement stuff works, is it to be completely one sided.” The specific use of the word “endorsement” and the Palins’ anger at the endorsement being “one-sided” appears to be strong evidence that the Palins were, in fact, not only expecting a quid pro quo endorsement from Miller for a yet-to-be-announced Palin presidential run, but were furious that they didn’t get it.
The email continues “Sarah spent all morning working on a Face book post for Joe, she won’t use it, not now. Put yourself in her shoe’s Joe for one day.” Though the exact contents of the Facebook post and the previously mentioned letter are not clear, it is obvious that the Palins did not, at the time of the email, intend to put any more political muscle behind Miller’s candidacy, and were specifically withholding support they had intended to give in retribution for Miller’s failure to support Palin’s presidential aspirations.
Is it petty of me to admit that the funniest thing about this story to me was the idea of Sarah Palin spending "all day" working on a Facebook post? All day, really? *snort*
The Palins are notorious for their ability to hold a grudge. It will be interesting to see if Joe Miller has created a permanent enemy in Sarah Palin or not.
Either way, it's just another reason to support Scott McAdams. Blue America has a donation page here.
