New drama: McCain staffers angry at Palin for saying she didn’t want to pray with them

She said she meant no disrespect by it, but it’s hard to see how: “So I’m looking around for somebody to pray with, I just need maybe a little help, maybe a little extra… And the McCain campaign, love ‘em, you know, they’re a lot of people around me, but nobody I could find that I wanted to hold hands with and pray.” She ended up praying with Piper. Maybe she meant there was no one there with whom she felt close enough to share a moment like that?

Anyway, I’m sure it’s all their fault for feeling insulted.

“We all talked this A.M.,” said one former Palin aide in an e-mail. “This set off a nerve for sure with a lot of people.”

“It’s yet another example of the few staff still loyal to Palin questioning their loyalty and ardent defense of her over the several months since the campaign,” said the aide, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about campaign colleagues…

“It’s about us people who were on the plane, who showed extreme loyalty to Palin, continually getting thrown under the bus or slapped in the face by her comments, whether she means it or not,” the staffer said, adding that Palin’s remarks “cause you to question not only your loyalty but her judgment as a leader.”

The former aides said they place part of the blame for Palin’s post-campaign candor on the governor’s staff in Alaska. Several have reached out individually to offer advice or assistance to the governor, but “have gotten only pleasantries in response,” said one aide.

No way to tell, obviously, whether the source here is a true Palin loyalist like Randy Scheunemann describing sincerely how his feelings are hurt or an (allegedly) false loyalist like Nicolle Wallace seizing the opportunity to throw a few rotten eggs back the ‘Cuda’s way. Exit question: Did she ever single out Scheuenemann or any other former aide by name for praise to distinguish them from the people who were sniping at her after the election? Maybe this is a case of some loyalists thinking she doesn’t appreciate them when she really does.

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