Mediaboss Marketing

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., left, listens while Republican Sen. Pat Roberts talks to supporters at a campaign stop at Johnson County Republican headquarters Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2014, in Overland Park, Kan. AP Photo/Charlie Riedel

Declaring "I am tea party," Sarah Palin on Thursday hit the campaign trail in Kansas to convince Sunflower State voters that imperiled Republican Sen. Pat Roberts is an bona fide champion of the ideological mulishness another of his surrogates lambasted just days before.

"He's not wishy-washy on the fence like you-know-who, the other guy," Palin said, according to the Washington Post, referring to Roberts' opponent, independent candidate Greg Orman, who's given the incumbent an unexpected run for his money. "I am so thankful because we need those with that stiff spine, with the principles that are so invicted [sic] within them, that they take a side."

Play Video

Greg Orman, an independent Senate candidate from Kansas, tells CBS News' Nancy Cordes why he believes Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, needs to be def...

Since her brief stint as the GOP's vice presidential nominee, the former Alaska governor-turned reality TV star has made a career out of heckling members of both parties whose heels do not dig into her particular mold of conservatism. And she's just the latest in a string of the party's heavy hitters who've trickled through the Sunflower State hoping to help Roberts hang onto his seat as Republicans eye a Senate takeover.

Earlier this week, former Senate Majority Leader and 1996 Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole lent his stature as a prominent Kansan to Roberts' cause, bemoaning the very intransigence that Palin promoted. Recalling fondly the largely defunct days of bipartisan deal-brokering, Dole said in passing reference to the Republican's tea party wing: "Some of those guys are so far on the right they're gonna fall out of the Capitol."

One reporter challenged Roberts to declare which of the competing messages aligned most closely with his values.

"Both," he reportedly answered. "How 'bout that."

Regardless, though, Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, suggested Wednesday during his own stump through the state, the ultimate objective is to defeat Orman. He joined a chorus of others in the GOP who have called Orman a Democrat in an independent's clothing.

Originally posted here:
Sarah Palin, John McCain, NRA line up to help Sen. Pat Roberts