Sarah Palin has long planned to attend an Iowa rally organized by the Tea Party of America on September 3. The Tea Party folks invited popular author Christine O'Donnell to speak there, too! A fine catch, to be sure. But when you lump so many historically unreliable people and groups together, things tend to fall apart in comical fashion.

O'Donnell, whose well-timed endorsement from Palin helped her win the 2010 Delaware Senate primary, was suddenly uninvited from the event yesterday. This was rude! O'Donnell was sad. Shortly thereafter, she was reinvited. Sarah Palin's people then started making murmurs that she wouldn't come after all, or at least that her decision was "on hold." And now Christine O'Donnell has been re-uninvited! Why? NBC News tries to confirm what seems obvious from the tail end of this timeline: That Sarah Palin doesn't want Christine O'Donnell around:

DES MOINES — Tea Party of America President Ken Crow told NBC News, "I had to cancel Ms. O'Donnell" after a conversation with Sarah Palin aides — and is now hopeful Palin will attend the Saturday rally in Indianola.

Tea Party for America has spent $100,000 on the event, so clearly they'll do anything to get Palin there, even if that means being gratuitously rude to Christine O'Donnell — who appears to be, amazingly enough, the most professional actor in this lived-out pulp comic — six or seven million more times before things are settled.

[Image via AP]