Sarah Palin confirms Rand Paul endorsement (Updated)

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After predicting Thursday that an endorsement by Sarah Palin was in the works, Rand Paul's campaign manager claimed Monday in a press release that it's a done deal:

National political icon and conservative leader Sarah Palin has endorsed Dr. Rand Paul in his bid for United States Senate from Kentucky. The Paul campaign has received a generous donation from Governor Palin’s PAC.

Sarah Palin has clearly seen that Rand Paul supports smaller, constitutional government and is taking the fight to the career politicians and will shake up the tax and spend crowd in Washington D.C.

“Governor Palin is providing tremendous leadership as the Tea Party movement and constitutional conservatives strive to take our country back,” Rand said.

“Sarah Palin is a giant in American politics. I am proud to receive her support.”

Politico's Ben Smith notes that the claimed endorsement strengthens the alliance between the Tea Party movement, Ron Paul libertarians and Gov. Palin's conservative grass roots, but adds a cautionary note:

Paul is claiming the endorsement, but worth noting that we haven't had a statement from Palin yet.

As of this Noon CST posting, we haven't seen anything on the governor's Twitter or Facebook Notes pages.

If true, this alliance could go a long way toward quashing all the chatter from the left and their trained media circus about the Tea Party movement "falling apart" -- which, of course, it was never in any danger of doing.

On the downside, Gov. Palin risks losing the support of many Kentuckians who were backing true conservative Bill Johnson, a long shot in the Senate race. Among them is Lisa Graas, a colleague and dear friend of ours who has worked tirelessly for Gov. Palin.

h/t: BluegrassBulletin.com

First Update: The Grayson camp voices its skepticism of the endorsement:

But the campaign manager for Paul's primary rival, GOP Secretary of State Trey Grayson, pointed out that Palin had not issued a statement of support for Paul or commented directly on the reported campaign donation, leaving open the possibility that she had stopped short of offering a formal endorsement.

Nate Hodson called the Paul campaign's announcement "a release by a campaign that has demonstrated previously the ability to report things that are not true or half-truths." Asked if the Grayson camp believed Paul was fabricating support for its candidate, Hodson replied: "It wouldn't be the first time."

Second Update: Says Dave Weigel at The Washington Independent:

TWI’s Rachel Hartman, digging into FEC filings, has not seen a Paul donation yet from SarahPAC — records only go through December 31, 2009.

Third Update: Ben Pershing at the Washington Post:

But is it true? Does the donation mean she is solidly behind his bid?

"My understanding is the check is considered to be an endorsement," Paul said in a phone interview Monday, explaining that Palin's political action committee, Sarah PAC, gave $2,000 to Paul's campaign in recent days.

Paul added that he had not spoken to Palin directly but that his aides had talked to her representatives, who conveyed her support for his campaign. Paul said those conversations would continue and that he hoped she would visit Kentucky at some point to do an event for him.

Um, excuse us, but Paul has not spoken directly to Gov. Palin? On something as important as a political endorsement, are we the only ones who think that the process should at least involve some degree of actual direct communication between endorser and endorsee? A political endorsements, by definition, should be completely unambiguous.

Fourth Update: Sarah Palin has indeed endorsed Rand Paul. Ben Pershing has received confirmation from the Palin Camp:

Her spokeswoman just sent over this statement from the former Alaska governor: "I'm proud to support great grassroots candidates like Dr. Paul. While there are issues we disagree on, he and I are both in agreement that it's time to shake up the status quo in Washington and stand up for common sense ideas."

- JP