Take two from Rick Barber, whom you might remember from the “no mosque at Ground Zero” spot just before the Republican primary. Politico’s doing some heavy breathing over this one, predictably, but it has the same saving grace as almost every other viral Alabama ad of this election cycle: It’s super-campy. Just watch RB emote during that “tea tax” line. He’s got the same half-serious, half-winking over-the-top bravado as the now immortal Dale Peterson had when he famously denounced those who give not a rip about Alabama. How do you deliver that line to a man in a colonial wig without busting up laughing? You don’t, I think. Which is why I’d kill to see the outtakes.

I’m hoping against hope to see Lincoln turn up eventually in one of these tea-party ads, but needless to say, it ain’t going to be in one aimed at Alabamans. Something for the surging New York tea-party movement to think about, perhaps. Exit question: Are we really not going to see anyone rope a calf or brand a steer in an Alabama ad? Not once?