At 2:51 p.m. eastern time on Friday, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who many in the Republican establishment try to dismiss as being irrelevant, endorsed Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock on her Facebook page over establishment Republican incumbent Richard Lugar.
“I join commonsense conservatives in endorsing Richard Mourdock to be the next Senator from Indiana,” Palin wrote. ” Senator Lugar’s 36 years of service as a Senator are appreciated, but it’s time for the torch to pass to conservative leadership in Washington that promises to rein in government spending now.”
Four hours later, at 6:36 p.m. eastern time, Politico ran a story about how the “American Action Network,” previously described as the establishment cavalry, would be pulling out of the Indiana race.
A coincidence it was not. With Palin’s endorsement, the American Action Network now saw the writing on the wall, for Palin’s conservative cavalry is more powerful than the establishment’s astroturf cavalry.
Recently, the American Action Network, run largely by establishment Republicans with ties to the George W. Bush administration, pledged $590,000 to help Lugar in the primary.
This is why the Republican establishment hates Palin.
While they spend hundreds of thousands of dollars — enriching their army of crony consultants and political tacticians in the process — to prop up candidates who will maintain the status quo, all Palin has to do is type out a Facebook note to thwart their best laid plans.