http://www.pensitoreview.com/2010/05/26/idaho-primary-vote-reveals-palins-poor-judgment-more-tea-party-disarray/ 
Idaho Primary Vote Confirms Palin’s Poor Judgment, More Tea Party DisarrayA week after the tea bag favorite lost the special election in Pennsylvania’s 12th congressional district to a Democrat — and six days after Kentucky Senate candidate Rand Paul, a tea bag favorite, imploded his campaign by coming out against the Civil Rights Act, results from Idaho’s primary yesterday produced yet another tea bagger snafu.
In the Republican race, Raul Labrador defeated the establishment favorite, Vaughn Ward, by 10 points, 48 percent to 38 percent. Ward was one of the Republican National Committee’s top “Young Gun” recruits, and he had the endorsement of tea bag princess Sarah Palin herself. Labrador, the outsider, was endorsed by a local tea bag group.
But in a remarkable move, Tea Party Express, the national astroturfing organization operated by the Sacramento-based Republican consulting group, Russo Marsh + Rogers, endorsed Rep. Walt Minnick, the incumbent Democrat, who ran unopposed. The endorsement by TPE — the organization that staged the recent corporate-funded bus rallies earlier this year — was the only endorsement of a Democrat by anyone in the tea bag hive this year.
Reacting to criticism about the Minnick endorsement, Sal Russo, the GOP operative whose firm runs Tea Party Express, offered this priceless bit of disinformational spin:
“Our belief is that the movement is strongest if it grows at the grass-roots level and there’s not a national organization that dictates what other groups do,” said Russo, clarifying that the Tea Party Express endorses candidates only as a way to “offer our counsel” to voters at the state and local level.
It’s too early to know whether Labrador’s surprise win will help Minnick hold his seat in November, but it is clear that Labrador didn’t win so much as Ward blew it.
The Iraq War veteran was accused of plagiarizing President Obama when he announced his campaign, and he came under fire again for allegedly taking position statements from GOP candidates’ websites in other states and using them as his own.
Then there was Ward’s error in calling Puerto Rico a country during a debate with Labrador. It is actually a commonwealth of the United States.
In the run-up to election day, Labrador expressed his disappointment over Palin’s endorsement of his opponent:
“I just wish she would have taken the time to talk to local grass-roots people,” Labrador said. “She never took the time to speak to me, to local tea party groups.”
Sarah Palin sure knows how to pick ‘em.
