Palin Throws Didier Under The Bus

So Clint Didier’s much-touted endorsement from Sarah Palin in the Washington U.S. Senate race is proving to be worthless (okay, SarahPAC did give Didier’s campaign $5000.)  From the Seattle Times:

Republican Clint Didier has been trying to get former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to headline political rallies or fund-raising events for him since she endorsed the former NFL player’s U.S. Senate candidacy in May.

In June, Didier campaign advisers told POLITICO that Palin described herself as “all in” for Didier. They hoped to schedule two Palin events, one in Eastern Washington and one on the west side.

Last month, when I visited Didier on his farm near Pasco, he said he still expected Palin would do an event for him before the primary. That could have given his underdog campaign a needed boost to get past GOP establishment favorite Dino Rossi and take on Sen. Patty Murray in November.

But with just a few days before primary ballots are counted Aug. 17, a Palin visit isn’t looking likely.

Didier had been trying to get Palin to commit to an event Saturday.

But Didier campaign consultant Kathryn Serkes told me via e-mail today that event “looks like a no… we can’t wait any longer to plan, so will plan without her.”

In an interview Wednesday, Serkes attributed the difficulty to Palin’s hectic schedule. “She gave her word and she’s doing the best she can. We know that,” Serkes said.

Serkes said Palin did agree to record a personal message that Didier can use in statewide robo-calls to voters.

But as of Thursday afternoon, that hadn’t happened yet.

And that should be no surprise.  Sarah Palin’s belief in a strong national defense stands in strong contrast to Ron Paul’s isolationism.  Admittedly, Palin has endorsed Paul’s son in the Kentucky Senate race. But Rand Paul has “gone clean for Gene” and backed away from his father’s more controversial foreign policy viewpoints.  Didier, on the other hand, has drank deeply from the Paul Kool-Aid, even calling the war in Afghanistan illegal.

OVERlution: Murray 41%, Rossi 33%, Didier 11%, Akers 5%

A KING5/SurveyUSA poll conducted just as Washington voters have “top two” primary ballots in their hands (all but one of 39 counties are vote-by-mail) finds incumbent Patty Murray and Republican challenger Dino Rossi poised to move ahead to the November U.S. Senate general election by wide margins of 41% and 33% respectively .

Self-appointed Tea Party candidate Clint Didier only garners 11% total support, with a mere 24% of those with a favorable opinion of the Tea Party backing Didier, versus 56% for Dino Rossi.  Rossi also leads in Didier’s native Eastern Washington by a 35%-21% margin.

Didier’s “running mate,” Republican Paul Akers only polls 5%.  The “joint campaigning” idea that Didier and Akers announced a couple of weeks ago does not seem to have produced any results, other than, as predicted, splitting the vote between the two men.

Didier’s lurch to the far right libertarian policies of Ron Paul has alienated many traditional conservatives in both the Tea Party movement and Eastern Washington who favor free trade, a strong national defense, and victory in the War on Terror.  And Didier’s “angry white man” routine has turned off voters, as expected, in more urban Western Washington, where he only receives 8% support.

Efforts by the sham pro-life Washington Life Coalition to smear Rossi as soft on abortion have also failed, with Rossi garnering 52% of the pro-life voter support, versus just 17% for Didier.  Ironically , that is the same amount for strongly pro-choice Patty Murray.

Clint Didier: Liar and Hypocrite

Self-proclaimed champion of the Tea Party, Clint Didier has consistently proclaimed that he is the opposite of the “politics as usual” that have so many Americans frustrated and angry. So in a fitting epitaph to his failed U.S. Senate campaign, Didier has just released a negative video ad attacking fellow Republican Dino Rossi so full of lies and half-truths, it would warm the heart of the most left-wing Democrat:

Even the Seattle Times had to rebut this nonsense:

The piece is pretty blatantly misleading on one of its main contentions.

It claims Rossi didn’t cut spending to deal with a budget deficit – that he instead “raised taxes” – referring to a five-cent gas tax increase approved that year.

But the gas tax isn’t even part of the general state budget that Rossi was charged with crafting. The state gas tax is dedicated to a separate roads budget. Rossi did vote for the nickel increase that year, along with many Republicans — it marked the first time the gas tax had gone up in a decade.

And the budget Rossi helped write – he had to compromise with then-Gov. Gary Locke and Democrats who controlled the state House – did cut make cuts to state spending.

Will Dino Rossi counterattack? No. He told a group in Pullman on Friday that he doesn’t run against Republicans. He is a firm believer in Reagan’s 11th Commandment.

So is this what the Tea Party has come to? More of the same old negativity? Devouring our own while the leftists sit back and laugh? Didier has just proven himself to be like every other politican, willing to do or say anything to get elected.

Goodbye Clint. And good riddance.

Didiakers Follow Through on Promise to Jointly End Political Careers

As promised, Washington U.S. Senate candidates have followed through on their promise made last week to start running joint “Didiakers” radio ads spreading unsubstantiated conspiracy paranoia about Republican frontrunner Dino Rossi.  Here it is:

The Odd Couple allude to how “Washington, D.C. and special interests are dumping millions of dollars into our opponent’s campaign war chest,” yet mysteriously Dino Rossi’s latest FEC report only shows around $200K in PAC contributions.

Didiakers speak of how voters are “frustrated with party politics as usual,” yet Akers himself has raised only a little over $45,000 in individual contributions.  Where is HIS grassroots support one might ask?  Didier has been endorsed by two of the leading Republican rebels in the country, Sarah Palin and Ron Paul, and yet his second quarter fundraising was less than than what he had raised prior to those endorsements.  Who exactly is to blame here?

And somehow, the duo claim, nefarious Republican “insiders” want you to believe “only their guy can win” and “they don’t want you to know the polls show we can beat Patty Murray,” despite the fact that Public Policy Polling, a left-leaning pollster has just released a poll of the August 17 “top two” Washington U.S. Senate Primary that has incumbent Patty Murray at 47%, Rossi at 33%, Didier at 10% and Akers at 4%.  This poll matches almost exactly the results of previous “top two” primary polls taken by Survey USA and Elway.  It’s even more ironic when you consider that Akers’ campaign was inspired and announced by the ultimate GOP insider, Dick Morris.

There’s no point in reiterating what every political strategist says is the fatal mistake of both candidates remaining in the race to split what little support they have instead of pooling it together to go after Rossi by having one bow out of the race and endorse the other.

Didiakers are right in that this is unprecedented.  The self-immolation of two public figures has never before been broadcast so willingly and widely.  Sad really.

And is it just me, or does the red background they use in the video remind anyone of the Black Lodge from Twin Peaks?  Seems fitting, as both Didier’s and Aker’s political futures have disappeared along with Agent Cooper.

Steele Continues to Back Away from Afghanistan Remarks; Finds New BFF in Didier

In a speech before some 100 Washington state Republicans last Saturday evening at the Greater Tacoma Convention and Trade Center, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele retreated, without apologizing, from his recent comments that the war in Afghanistan is “unwinnable:”

I think at this moment it is important for me to also address that, I know some folks feel the comments that I made recently about the war in Afghanistan, that I may feel that way too.

I respect all of you so much and particularly the men and women in uniform who come from this state, who serve in this state. I want to tell you personally from me to you and to all of them that I am 1000% for victory for our men and women in service, that we cannot leave them on the battlefield alone, that we cannot undermine an opportunity to win.

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