Sarah Palin has taken to going after Chris Christie for having called Newt Gingrich an “embarrassment” to the party. First, she attacked Christie on The Five, saying he had gotten his “panties in a wad.” Then, on Hannity, she accused Christie of having embarrassed the party when he took a state police helicopter to his son’s ballgame. But in her second segment on Hannity, Palin complained about Mitt Romney not reaching out to the Tea Party enough. That suggests – to me, anyway – that her real beef is about not getting the kind of attention and respect from the Romney campaign she thinks she deserves.

On The Five yesterday (1/23/12), Palin said in the most hideously condescending tone,

Poor Chris! This was a rookie mistake. He played right into the media’s hand. Sometimes, if your candidate loses, in just one step along this path, as was the case when Romney lost to Newt the other night and of course Romney is Chris Christie’s guy - well, you kind of get your panties in a wad and you may say things that you regret later and I think that that’s what Chris Christie did.

Actually, I think it’s Palin who is later going to regret her words – especially if Romney becomes the nominee.

Later, on Hannity, Palin said about Christie,

I mean, who’s one to throw stones? I and probably every other GOP – not high-profile but GOP player, I guess – has no doubt embarrassed the party, including Chris Christie, I’m sure, with some of his actions in the past – like taking a state-owned helicopter to his kid’s ballgame. You know, maybe some people thought that was kind of embarrassing.

But in Part 2 of her interview, she said,

In South Carolina, there are a lot of independent Tea Party patriots who were reached by Newt Gingrich then who won in South Carolina. Mitt Romney – you know, throwing a little bit of advice for what it’s worth at him is – to effectively reach out to those Tea Party independent patriots out there… Mitt Romney needs to more effectively reach out to these independents and not just assume that the media’s gonna carry his water and the GOP machine, that establishment’s gonna carry his water and tell us who it is that we should vote for. No, we’re much more independent than that. We’ll do our own homework and we do expect though a candidate to give some credence to that Tea Party movement that was so instrumental, I believe, in that South Carolina victory for Newt Gingrich.

Unlike Romney, Gingrich has been sucking up to Palin. Anyone want to bet that's what this is really all about?

And just like she and Fox teased forever a phony potential presidential run, now they are teasing her endorsement.