While Sarah Palin clearly does not read much in general, she seems to have skipped the Republican memo regarding the Tea Party movement in particular. Appearing on Fox News with Sean Hannity, Palin endorsed the notion of Tea Baggers brewing up third party candidates, a development she insisted "can actually help in this process." That proclamation not only violates the GOP line proffered by Michael Steele, Michele Bachmann, Jim Demint and others that "We need to stop looking at the tea parties as separate from the Republican Party." As it turns out, only a month ago Palin herself was against a third party before she was for it.
On Monday night, the half-term Alaska Governor turned Fox regular told Sean Hannity that a third party was a good thing:

HANNITY: If it's a strong conservative that gets the Republican nomination and then a tea party member runs as a third party candidate, do you have any worry about that?
PALIN: I do have a little bit of worry about that but at the same time that can be part of a healthy process, though. A third party candidate can really shore-up a Republican candidate in terms of that Republican candidate having to be very strong and sharp and debate aggressively, regarding the positions that they have taken.
A third party candidate, I think, Sean, can actually help in this process. And if nothing else a third party candidate is going to help keep the Republican Party being held accountable, too.

That's a far cry, however, from what Palin told the Republican faithful at a Little Rock, Arkansas event in February. As CBS recounted:

"Now the smart thing will be for independents who are such a part of this Tea Party movement to, I guess, kind of start picking a party," Palin said. "Which party reflects how that smaller, smarter government steps to be taken? Which party will best fit you? And then because the Tea Party movement is not a party, and we have a two-party system, they're going to have to pick a party and run one or the other: 'R' or 'D'."

Such schizophrenia is part and parcel of the Palin political persona. Last fall, she backed the tepid Tea Bagger Doug Hoffman in the special election in New York's 23rd congressional district. That gambit destroyed the candidacy of GOP pick Dede Scozzafava and produced the first Democratic win in the district in generations. In terms of her personal philosophy, Governor Palin assured Katie Couric in September 2008 that "I'm a feminist." Then just weeks later when NBC's Brian Williams asked, "Governor, are you a feminist," Palin forgot her earlier vow of "I do":

"I'm not gonna label myself anything, Brian. And I think that's what annoys a lot of Americans, especially in a political campaign, is to start trying to label different parts of America different, different backgrounds, different...I'm not going to put a label on myself."

For today at least, you can label Sarah Palin a Tea Bagger. And as far as we know, it didn't cost the Tea Party another $100,000.